Casino gaming exchange market

ABSTRACT

In a cashless gaming environment, a gaming patron has accounts and may accumulate winnings as well as different types of awards. Methods for efficiently exchanging the awards are disclosed. A secondary market is established for trading different goods and services. Liquidity of credits and awards is established.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to gaming devices and systems,and more specifically to facilitating exchanges between players andmanaging players accounts in a casino gaming environment.

Casinos and other forms of gaming comprise a growing multi-billiondollar industry both domestically and abroad, with electronic andmicroprocessor based gaming machines being more popular than ever. Agaming entity that provides gaming services may control gaming devicesthat are globally distributed in many different types of establishments.For example, gaming machines may be placed in casinos, conveniencestores, racetracks, supermarkets, bars and boats. Further, via a remoteserver, a gaming entity may provide gaming services in locale of auser's choosing, such as on a home computer or on a mobile devicecarried by the user.

Electronic and microprocessor based gaming machines can include varioushardware and software components to provide a wide variety of game typesand game playing capabilities, with such hardware and softwarecomponents being generally well known in the art. For example, billvalidators, coin acceptors, card readers, keypads, buttons, levers,touch screens, displays, coin hoppers, player tracking units and thelike are examples of hardware that can be coupled to a gaming machine.Software components can include, for example, boot and initializationroutines, various game play programs and subroutines, credit and payoutroutines, image and audio generation programs, security monitoringprograms, authentication programs and a random number generator, amongothers.

The functions available on a gaming machine may depend on whether thegaming machine is linked to other gaming devices. For instance, whenconnected to other remote gaming devices, a gaming machine may provideprogressive jackpots, player tracking and loyalty points programs,cashless gaming, and bonusing among other items. Many of these addedcomponents, features and programs can involve the implementation ofvarious back-end and/or networked systems, including more hardware andsoftware elements, as is generally known.

In a typical casino-based electronic gaming machine, such as a slotmachine, video poker machine, video keno machine or the like, a gameplay is initiated through a wager of money or credit, whereupon thegaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome tothe player and then potentially dispenses an award of some type,including a monetary award, depending upon the game outcome. In thisinstance, the gaming machine is operable to receive, store and dispenseindicia of credit or cash as well as calculate a gaming outcome thatcould result in a large monetary award. The gaming machine is enabled tooperate in this manner because it is placed typically in a location thatis monitored (e.g., a casino), the gaming machine hardware and softwarecomponents are secured within a locked cabinet and the gaming machineincludes a security system for detecting fraud or theft attempts.

Because gaming machines can be operable to accept, store, dispenseand/or award large sums of money, gaming machines are often the targetsof theft attempts. Thus, besides including a security system, gamingsoftware and gaming hardware are designed and/or selected to resisttheft attempts and include many security features not present inpersonal computers or other gaming platforms. For example, ahardware-based security method for preventing illegal softwaremodification is to store gaming software on an unalterable memory, suchas an on EPROM, a read-only CD/DVD optical disc or a read-only diskmemory with write capability disabled. As another example, asoftware-based security method for preventing/detecting illegal softwaremodifications is to execute authentication routines that compareinformation stored and programs executed on the gaming machine againstknown and trusted information. The trusted information andauthentication routines can be stored in a trusted memory location suchas a verified EPROM on the gaming machine.

One advantage of utilizing the hardware and software based securitymethods described above is that the potential for fraud and theft isgreatly reduced. Further, for gaming software approved by a gamingregulator to ensure fairness, another advantage is that the hardware andsoftware based security methods can be used to detect any subsequentmodifications to the gaming software that might put a player at anunfair disadvantage. One disadvantage of the security methods describedabove is that the ability to later alter or expand gaming software toadd additional features or correct errors is somewhat limited. Forinstance, for gaming machines that utilize EPROM's to store executablegaming software, the EPROM has to be physically replaced in the gamingmachine to alter the gaming software.

A gaming entity may provide gaming services to tens of thousands ofusers. For instance, a single land-based casino may include thousands ofgaming machines. Player's gaming interests are constantly changing andthe effort associated with providing fresh content to users is quitecostly. The ability of a casino operator to maximize their operatingprofits and keep their customers happy is directly linked to theirability to provide new and desirable gaming content

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In a cashless gaming environment, a gaming patron has accounts and mayaccumulate winnings as well as different types of awards. Methods forefficiently exchanging the awards are disclosed. A secondary market isestablished for trading different goods and services. Liquidity ofcredits and awards is established.

One aspect of the invention relates to a method employed in a casinogaming environment. The method comprises: awarding a plurality ofplayers at least one award of each type from a group of awardscomprising the following types: an amount of comp; extra game playcredit; or a tangible object; receiving an indication from at least oneof the plurality of players that the player desires to exchange anamount of comp for a different type of award; receiving an indicationfrom at least one of the plurality of players that the player desires toexchange an amount of extra game play credit for a different type ofaward; receiving an indication from at least one of the plurality ofplayers that the player desires to exchange an awarded tangible objectfor a different type of award; maintaining a database of the indicationsfor exchanges; referencing the database and determining the aggregatesupply of comp; referencing the database and determining the aggregatedemand for comp; referencing the database and determining the aggregatedemand for game play credit; referencing the database and determiningthe aggregate supply of game play credit; and referencing the databaseand determining the supply of tangible items desired to be exchanged.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a method of facilitating anaward exchange transaction within a casino gaming environment. Themethod comprises: providing a plurality of types of awards to patrons;providing an award exchange user interface for the patrons; collectingseller award exchange information from the patron via the userinterface, said seller award exchange information comprising: a type ofitem the patron wishes to place on auction to other patrons; and aminimum price participants in the auction must bid in order for thetransactions to be completed; and a period of time publishing anadvertisement comprising the seller information on a network availableto patrons; receiving responses comprising a bid from interestedpurchasers and determining which of the interested purchasers has bidthe highest amount within the period of time; and executing the awardexchange transaction between the selling patron and the interestedpurchaser that has bid the highest amount within the period of time.

Yet another aspect of the invention relates to a method for servicing acasino gaming customer. The method comprises providing the customer afirst type of award; receiving input from the customer of a desiredsecond type of award; receiving input from the customer specifying anumber of units of the first type of award the customer wishes toexchange for a number of units of the second type of award; finding asource for the second type of award; determining if the source of thesecond type of award is willing to trade the specified number of unitsof the second type of award for less than or equal to the specifiednumber of units of the first type of award; and if so determined,executing the transaction between the customer and the source.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C are block diagrams illustrating an interactionbetween a host and gaming machine for one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an interaction between two hostsand a gaming machine for one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C is a block diagram showing hardware and softwarecomponents and their interactions on a gaming machine for embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram between a host and gaming machine forone embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are block diagrams illustrating features of anexternally controlled interface (ECI) on a gaming machine forembodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of one embodiment of a gamingmachine.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of a gaming system for embodiments ofthe present invention.

FIG. 8 is a high level flow chart of award flow according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of award flow according to another embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of award flow according to another embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of award flow according to another embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Exemplary applications of systems and methods according to the presentinvention are described in this section. These examples are beingprovided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of thepresent invention. It will thus be apparent to one skilled in the artthat the invention may be practiced without some or all of thesespecific details. In other instances, well known process steps have notbeen described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring thepresent invention. Other applications are possible, such that thefollowing example should not be taken as definitive or limiting eitherin scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific embodiments of the presentinvention. Although these embodiments are described in sufficient detailto enable one skilled in the art to practice the invention, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherembodiments may be used and changes may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention.

In the following figures, method and apparatus applicable to variousgaming system configurations and their associated components aredescribed. The gaming systems may comprise a network infrastructure forenabling one or more hosts to communicate with gaming machines. Thegaming machines may be operable to provide wagering on a game of chance.A plurality of gaming devices, such as bill/ticket validators, printers,mechanical displays, video displays, coin hoppers, light panels, inputbuttons, touch screens, key pads, card readers, audio output devices,etc., may be coupled to the gaming machine. The gaming devices may becontrolled by a master gaming controller executing authenticatedsoftware to provide a gaming interface for a game play experience on thegaming machine.

Externally-Controlled Interface Processes

In particular embodiments, the gaming devices on the gaming machine maybe controlled by software executed by a master gaming controller 46 (seeat least FIG. 6) on the gaming machine in conjunction with softwareexecuted by a remote logic device (e.g., a remote host, a central serveror a central controller) in communication with the gaming machine. Themaster gaming controller may execute externally-controlled interface(ECI) processes, described in more detail below, that enable contentgenerated and managed on the remote host to be output on the gamingmachine. The gaming machine may receive and send events to the remotehost that may affect the content output by one or more ECI processes aswell as enable an ECI process to be initiated on the gaming machine.

The master gaming controller may be configured to limit the resourcesthat can be utilized by the ECI processes executing on the gamingmachine. Specific resource limitations may be predetermined, negotiatedwith a host device controlling an ECI prior to the execution of the ECIon the gaming machine or combinations thereof. To enforce anyestablished resource limitations, the master gaming controller mayconstantly monitor resources utilized by the ECI processes and othergaming processes executing on the gaming machine.

The ECI's may be executed while a gaming machine is operable to providea play of wager-based game of chance (During operation, one or moregames and one or more executed simultaneously, one or more games may beexecuted without execution of an ECI or one or more ECIs may be executedwhile a game is not being played). Therefore, the resources may belimited to ensure that a gaming experience on the gaming machine isoptimal while access to gaming resources is granted to a remote host.The resources allocated to ECI's may be limited for many reasons, suchas ensuring the game play experience is adequate or for securitypurposes, and the examples described herein, which are provided forillustrative purposes only. For instance, the CPU cycles provided toexecuting ECI processes may be limited to ensure a minimal graphicallyrendered frame rate is maintained on the gaming machine. As anotherexample, the ECI processes may not be allowed to directly control oraccess certain devices, such as money handling devices, to prevent theECI from allowing cash or an indicia of credit to be input or outputfrom the gaming machine.

It should be appreciated that the gaming device resources utilized bythe ECI processes include, but are not limited to: graphic resources ofthe gaming machine (i.e., what graphical real estate is available on thedisplay device without interfering with the graphics of the primarygame), audio resources of the gaming machine (i.e., what audio contentmay be provided by the gaming machine without interfering with the audioof the primary game), timing resources available (i.e., has the primarygame ended or is the primary game beginning), and/or CPU processingresources of the gaming machine. In one embodiment, access to suchresources may be based on a priority system configured to maximize anoptimal gaming experience for each player.

In particular embodiments, the host-controlled ECI processes may bedecoupled from the processes used to generate the game of chance playedon the gaming machine such that the content output by thehost-controlled ECI processes doesn't alter the play of game of chance.Thus, the logic for the game processes may be designed such thatinformation regarding the state or content generated by the ECIprocesses is not needed to generate the game of chance and/or the gameand related processes may not recognize any information produced by theECI's. The ECI processes may be designed in a similar manner.

An advantage of ECI software and game software decoupled in this mannermay be that content may be provided from a remote host that enhances thefunctionality and features available on the gaming machine. The contentcan be easily varied with little or no modification to the gamingsoftware resident on the gaming machine. For instance, many features andservices on a gaming machine can be provided using a generic ECI thatenables access to a display and a touch screen on the gaming machine(e.g., see at least FIGS. 5A and 5B). Externally controlled interfaces,the interaction between a remote host and a gaming machine, embodimentsof hardware and software architectures on a gaming machine related toECI's are described with respect to the following figures.

FIGS. 1A to 1C are block diagrams illustrating an interaction between ahost and gaming machine for one embodiment of the present invention. InFIG. 1A, a block diagram of a gaming system comprising a gaming machine100, a remote host 110 and a network that enables for communicationbetween the gaming machine and the remote host 100 (not shown) isillustrated. The gaming system is provided for illustrative purposesonly. Gaming systems comprising multiple gaming machines and multipleremote hosts are possible. Further, in some embodiments, the gamingmachine 100 may perform functions of the remote host 100 or the remotehost 110 may be a game server providing games that are output on othergaming devices or the remote host 110 may be a gaming machine similar togaming machine 100. Further details of embodiments of gaming systems andgaming devices that may be used are described with respect to FIGS.2-9D.

The gaming machine 100 comprises a touch screen display 102 that may bea component of a game interface 116. The game interface 116 comprisesthe components on the gaming machine 100, such as input buttons (notshown), audio output devices (not shown), etc., that enable a game to beplayed on the gaming machine 100. An operating system 104 executes anumber of processes including game logic 106 for providing a game on thegame interface 116, event logic 108 and communication logic forcommunicating with the remote host 110 (not shown). Further details ofgaming machines and game play are described with respect to FIGS. 2 to9D.

In FIG. 1A, the game interface 116 may be divided into two regions onthe touch screen display 102. A first region includes symbols andpaylines for a video slot game. A second region 117 includes gameinformation including the number of credits available for wagering onthe slot game. In the game state illustrated in the figure, five creditsare available for wagering.

The remote host 110 comprises a processor, memory and a communicationinterface (each not shown). Content 114 that may be output on the gamingmachine 100 and event logic 112 that enables the remote host 110 torespond to events and information received from the gaming machineand/or generate events to send to the gaming machine 100. Additionaldetails of remote hosts are described with at least respect to FIGS. 2,4 and 7.

In FIG. 1A, the event logic 108 detects an event message and sends anevent message with information describing the event to the remote host110. As is described with respect to FIG. 1B, the remote host 110responds to the event by requesting the gaming machine to launch anexternally controlled interface (ECI) that enables content 114 stored onthe remote host 110 to be output on the gaming machine. A few examplesof events occurring on the gaming machine 100 that may trigger aninstantiation of an ECI to be launched on the gaming machine 100 includebut are not limited to (1) a deposit of credits on the gaming machine,(2) a player tracking card inserted into a card reader, (3) informationbeing read from a portable instrument carried by a player (e.g., a cellphone, RFID tag or other wireless device), (4) an actuation of button,such as a mechanical button or a touch screen button, (5) an eventtriggered from a play of the game 106, (6) a cash-out command detectedon the gaming machine, (7) an input of a wager, (8) an initiation of thegame 106, (9) a number of credits available on the gaming machine, (10)the result of one or more games, (11) the result of the generation ofone or more symbols, (12) a designated win amount, (13) a player cashingout available credits, and (14) a player tracking card removed from acard reader. As is described in more detail with respect to FIG. 2, anevent generated on the remote host may also trigger the launch of an ECIon the gaming machine.

The event sent from the gaming machine is evaluated by the event logic112 on the remote host 110. In response to the receiving the event 110,the remote host 110 sends a message requesting access to resources onthe gaming machine 100. In response, the gaming machine 100 may send amessage to the remote 110 describing the resources it has available forexternal control and any usage limitations that are associated with theresources, such as a portion of the display 102 including its dimensionsthat may be utilized by the remote host.

The remote host 110 may use the resource information provided by thegaming machine 100 to determine what content to send to the gamingmachine 100. For example, video content to be output on the portion ofthe display 102 allocated for use by the remote host may be generatedand/or selected to be compatible with the size of the display window.The process of establishing a resource sharing arrangement between theremote host 110 and the gaming machine 100, which may involve anegotiation between the remote host 110 and gaming machine 100, aredescribed in further detail with respect to FIGS. 2 to 4.

In FIG. 1B, a state of the gaming machine 100 and the remote host 110 isillustrated where the gaming machine 100 has launched two ECI's, 122 and124, that enable the remote host 110 to output content for a bonusinterface 118 and a service interface 120 on touch screen display 102.The bonus interface 118 may be just one example of an interface that maybe provided. A multimedia player, such as a Flash Player™ by Adobe™(Adobe Systems Incorporated, San Jose, Calif.), may be one example ofsoftware that may be used as an ECI, such as 122 and 124. The multimediaplayer may allow, as one of its features, multimedia content receivedfrom the remote host 110 to be displayed on the touch screen display 102and/or output on other gaming devices, such as speakers coupled to thegaming machine.

The remote host may download the multimedia content as part ofapplication files that are utilized by the ECI'S, 122 and 124. Theapplication files may include embedded content, data, scripts and otherinstructions for accessing the capabilities of the ECI to be utilized.For example, the Flash Player™ runs and/or parses flash files which mayinclude Adobe Flash Action Script.™ The flash files may includeinformation relating to utilizing raster or vector graphics, a scriptinglanguage to control functions of the player and information forproviding bidirectional streaming including audio and video information.In particular, an ECI may be operable to receive video and/or audiostreaming of content from a remote host. The multimedia player andassociated files, such as the Flash Player™ may be a component of a“Rich Internet Application,” (RIA).

Rich Internet applications (RIA) are typically interface applicationsprovided by a host to a client with downloadable components that havethe features and the functionality of locally installed and executedprograms. RIAs typically transfer the processing necessary for theinterface generated by the application to the client but keep the bulkof the data (i.e., maintaining the state of the program, the data etc)back on the host. RIA's are not limited to web-based applicationsapplied over the Internet and may be utilized in other networkarchitectures. In an RIA involving a host device and a client device(e.g., remote host 110 may be considered a “host” and gaming machine 100may be considered a “client” in particular embodiments), an applicationfor generating an interface executed on the client may be operable toperform functions independently of the host, such as computations, sendand retrieve data in the background, store data locally, redraw sectionsof the screen, and/or use audio and video in an integrated manner, etc.

The application for generating the interface may also share data withother applications locally executing. For example, two ECIs executing ongaming machine 100 may share data. The shared data may affect thecontent displayed on one or both ECIs. In particular embodiments, theECIs may be prevented from directly sharing data with other processesexecuting on the gaming machine. For example, to share data with anon-ECI process, the ECI may have to send the information to the remotehost first, which then may or may not perform additional processing onthe data before communicating it back to the gaming machine.

Returning to FIG. 1B, after the ECI'S, 122 and 124, have been launchedby the operating system 104, the touch screen display 102 may be dividedinto four regions. The game interface 116 may be displayed in a firstregion, the bonus interface 118 may be displayed in a second region, theservice interface 120 may be displayed in a third region and the gameinformation 117 in a fourth region. The game interface 116 is configuredto fit in a smaller region as compared to FIG. 1A, which may affect thegraphical presentation of the game and may affect a mapping of touchscreen buttons to the display 102 associated with the game interface116.

In general, a master gaming controller in the gaming machine may beoperable to provide content to display regions of different sizes. Toprovide content to display regions of different sizes, the gamingmachine may perform one or more of the following, 1) select from amongstored content, such as bitmaps, movies, animations, geometric models,etc., according to which content is more appropriate for a given displaysize, 2) rearrange a position of one or more components in a displaywindow relative to one another, 3) scale content, 4) stretch content, 5)interpolate content, 6) generate new content, 7) adjust parameters of a3-D graphical environment used to generate content and 8) combinationsthereof.

In one embodiment, the wager-based games played on the gaming machinemay be configured such that the manner in which a game is played or themanner in which an outcome is generated for the game may not be alteredvia any information from any instantiation of an ECI on the gamingmachine 100. For example, in one embodiment, the bonus interface 118 maybe used to provide a bonus multiplier for an award associated with anoutcome of a game played on the gaming machine, such as a ten timesbonus. In this example, the bonus multiplier doesn't affect how the gameis played or how the outcome to the game is generated. But, the bonusmultiplier does affect the award for the game, i.e., it is multiplied bya factor of ten.

In the example described in the preceding paragraph, the gaming programmay include logic to generate a simple message that a bonus multiplierhas been provided, such as a simple text message “You have won a bonusMultiplier.” The bonus interface ECI 118 may be used to enhance andcustomize the presentation of the award of the bonus multiplier. Forinstance, in a particular embodiment, the bonus multiplier may beprovided by a local casino and bonus interface ECI 118 may be used todisplay one or more of a casino logo, a custom message from the casinoand a theme based presentation, such as a casino theme or a holidaytheme as part of a presentation for the bonus multiplier award.

In many gaming jurisdictions, after a game is approved, the content ofthe game may not be altered. Thus, to customize a game for a particularcasino or a particular gaming entity, customized content would have tobe added to the game and then submitted to an associated gamingjurisdiction for approval at which point the content would be fixed(Gaming jurisdictions don't allow the gaming software to be altered inany way after it has been approved). The approval process is timeconsuming and expensive.

Prior to the approval process for a particular game, the gaming softwareprovider for the particular game often doesn't know which casinos orother gaming entities are going to purchase the particular game. Forinstance, game purchasers often wait and see how the particular game isperforming at other casinos before they choose to buy it. Thus, thedesire for a customized version of the particular game generally arisesafter the content of the game has been fixed by the approval process. Toprovide desired customization after the approval process, the customizedgame would have to be resubmitted for approval, which is very expensive.

One advantage of using ECIs is that a presentation of a game may beenhanced using an ECI, such as by providing a presentation for a bonusmultiplier, as described above, in conjunction with the presentation ofthe game. The content of the ECI may be customized and altered after therelease of the game while the presentation provided by the game may notbe altered after its release. The presentation provided via an ECI maybe designed to look like a component of an associated game, e.g., it mayuse the same theme and may be displayed on the same screen, and thus, tothe player may appear as another component of the presentation of theassociated game even though as will be discussed further, the ECI may bea logical entity decoupled from the associated game. Thus, using an ECI,the appearance of game customization may be provided to a user withouthaving to customize the actual game that is submitted for jurisdictionapproval.

In yet another embodiment, the gaming device utilizes a plurality ofdisplay devices to display the game interface and one or more ECIs. Forexample, a first display device may display the game interface and asecond display device may display each ECI communicated from the remotehost. In one such embodiment, each display device may be controlled byone or more different processors such that each display device maygenerate and display information or data independently of (oralternatively dependent on) information or data displayed by the otherdisplay devices.

In another embodiment, the remote host may be in communication with eachsuch processor to oversee (and possibly control) what may be displayedon one or more display devices of each gaming device in the gamingsystem. In this embodiment, the remote host may be either in directcommunication with or indirect communication with (such as through aplayer tracking system) each gaming device in the gaming establishment.This configuration provides that even if the remote host is not directlyin communication with a designated gaming device's CPU, the remote hostmay be still operable to communicate with and provide such designatedgaming device (and all gaming devices in the gaming establishment) oneor more ECIs as described herein. Examples of display devices that maybe controlled via an ECI are described with respect to U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/756,225, filed Jan. 12, 2004, entitled, “Virtual Glass for aGaming Machine,” by Lemay, et al, which is incorporated herein in itsentirety and for all purposes.

The bonus interface 118 may enable a player to win a bonus award. In oneembodiment, a player may be afforded an opportunity to select between anumber of bonus multipliers where a probability of an award of theselected multiplier varies from multiplier to multiplier and may becalculated based upon which multiplier is selected. In one embodiment,the logic for determining whether the selection of a particularmultiplier may reside on the remote host 110. In another embodiment, thelogic for determining the selection of a particular multiplier resideson the remote host and uses data communicated from the gaming device,such as data based on a player tracking information.

When the player selects one of the multipliers, raw touch screen inputdata may be sent via event logic 108 and using necessary communicationlogic (not shown) to the event logic 112 on the remote host 110. Whenthe ECI 122 for the bonus interface 118 is instantiated, a portion ofthe touch screen display 102 that may be used by the ECI 122 may bedetermined. This information provides a mapping in regards to whichregions of the display are assigned to ECI's. With this information, theoperating system 104 may determine whether a touch input received at aparticular location is in a region assigned to an ECI and when it isdetermined that the input is in a region assigned to a particular ECI,route the touch information to a remote host controlling the particularECI.

In another embodiment, the ECI, may be designed or configured to performsome data handling received from the touch screen. For instance, the ECImay be configured to receive raw touch screen data and determine whethera button has been activated. It may be possible to specify, prior toexecution of the ECI what portion of a display screen is available tothe ECI and its associated dimensions/coordinates. Thus, a remote host,such as 110, may download an application file including desired contentfor use by the ECI, such as 122 and 124, that allows the ECI to processtouch input. For example, the application file may include a mapping ofcoordinate locations for each active area (i.e., an area for acceptingtouch inputs such as buttons on displayed on the display behind thetouch screen). The mapping may allow the ECI to process the raw touchdata and then send higher-level information to its external controller,i.e., host 110, such as, “Button A activated.”

Input processing logic may be provided with an ECI for input devicesother than a touch screen. For instance, as part of an instantiation ofan ECI controlled by a first remote host, it may be agreed that wheninput from one or more input devices, such as a touch screen, cardreader, a mechanical key pad, mechanical input buttons and combinationsthereof, is detected, the input information is to be sent to the firstremote host as long as the ECI is active or sent to the ECI forprocessing, which then may forward the processed information to theremote host. Thus, in general, as part of the initial instantiation ofan ECI, information regarding what input devices are associated with theECI and/or what types of input information to route to the ECI and/or toroute directly to the remote host associated with the ECI may bedetermined and stored on the gaming machine. The information regardingwhat input devices are associated with the ECI may be determined duringan initial negotiating process between the host and the gaming machine.

In another embodiment, the ECI may provide initial processing ofinformation. For example, during the negotiation process, the gamingmachine may specify information regarding inputs it receives fromvarious input devices that it will share with the ECI. The specifiedinformation may include but is not limited to the type of device,manufacturer of the device, one or more inputs generated from the deviceand a format for the information for each the inputs. Using thespecified information, the remote host may generate application filesfor an ECI or generate a new ECI application that performs the properprocessing/filtering of the inputs received from the gaming machine androutes needed information to the remote host or remote hosts associatedwith the ECI.

As described in the previous paragraph, the gaming machine may not passalong information regarding all of the inputs it receives from devicescoupled to the gaming machine. For instance, the gaming machine may notpass along input information generated by a bill validator or moneyhandling devices coupled to the gaming machine. In one embodiment, thegaming machine may include logic for providing a standard set of devicedescriptions and associated inputs that may be provided to an ECI. Inanother embodiment, the gaming machine device descriptions andassociated inputs may be varied depending on the remote host that isrequesting resources for an ECI.

As described above, even when the remote host or ECI is to receive inputfrom an input device, not all of the input information received from aninput device may be routed to the ECI and/or the remote host controllingthe ECI. For instance, the remote host may specify that information readfrom a player tracking card is to be sent directly to the remote host orrouted through the ECI but not information from a credit card. Asanother example, the remote host may specify that it is looking forinput only from a portion of the mechanical input buttons on the gamingmachines and that only input from the specified buttons is to bedirectly routed to the remote host or routed through the ECI but notother buttons. In yet another example, the remote host may specify thatif the player inserts a ticket into the bill validator while the ECI isactive that the gaming machine is to directly route the ticketinformation to the remote host or route it through the ECI.

Returning to FIG. 1B, after the remote host 110 receives from the gamingmachine 100 the raw touch input corresponding to the selection of one ofthe bonus multipliers, in one embodiment, the bonus interface manager126 on the remote host 110 determines that the raw touch inputcorresponds to a selection of the “2×” multiplier illustrated in FIG.1B. In another embodiment, the raw touch input may be routed to ECI 122,which process the raw touch input and then notifies the remote host thatthe “2×” multiplier has been selected.

In response to the selection of the “2×” multiplier, the bonus interfacemanager may send updated content to gaming machine 100 that indicatesthe “2×” multiplier was selected, which may be displayed by the ECIprocess 122 to the display screen. For instance, the “2×” multiplier maybe highlighted or emphasized in some manner in the bonus interface 118on the touch screen display 102. In another embodiment, the ECI 122 mayhave the capability to update the display to indicate the “2×”multiplier has been selected without receiving additional content orinstructions from the bonus interface manager 126.

In this example, the bonus interface manager 126 next generates a randomnumber and determines that the player has won the “2×” multiplier. Inresponse, the bonus interface manager 126 sends updated contentindicating the player has won the “2×” multiplier, which may bedisplayed by the ECI process 122 to the display screen. Next, the remotehost 110 may send two events to the gaming machine 100 which may bereceived and processed by the event logic on the gaming machine.

The first event received from the remote host 110 may cause the gamingmachine 100 to double the credits in the credit meter stored on thegaming machine. The first event may be processed by event logic 108 onthe gaming machine. When the credit meter has been doubled, as shown inFIG. 1C, the gaming machine 100 may send a message to the remote host110 indicating the amount credited to the player. Both the gamingmachine 100 and the remote 110 may store a record of this event (i.e.,the award of the additional credits) for auditing and dispute resolutionpurposes to secure memory location, such as a Non-volatile memory. Itshould be appreciated that this first event illustrates an occurrence ofan ECI (in this case, a 2× multiplier) modifying one or more aspects ofthe locally controlled game of chance.

The second event sent from the remote host 110 causes the gaming machine100 to close down or hide the bonus interface 118 and terminate the ECIprocess 122 associated with the bonus interface (see at least FIG. 1C).The remote host 110 terminates the bonus interface manager 126 used tosend content associate with the ECI 122 to the gaming machine 100 (seeat least FIG. 1C). During the termination process, the gaming machine100 and remote host 110 may exchange messages with informationindicating the ECI 122 is no longer active and session terminationinformation, such as a session associated with the ECI 122 ended at acertain time, date, etc.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine enables the player at leastpartial control in when to open and close down (or hide) the ECI. In onesuch embodiment, a player may open and close an ECI via a buttonconnected to (or otherwise associated) with the remote host. In thisembodiment, the master gaming controller may receive a message from theremote host indicating a desire to close down or hide the ECI. Inanother embodiment, a player may open and close an ECI via a buttonconnected to (or otherwise associated) with the master gamingcontroller. For example, a dedicated mechanical input switch/button maybe provided on the gaming machine that generates a signal indicating adesire to open or close an ECI.

When an ECI is initiated or terminated on the gaming machine, inresponse to an input from an input device on the gaming machine, such asthe actuation of an input switch as described in the precedingparagraph, in response to some other event generated on the gamingmachine, or in response to an event generated on a remote host, in oneembodiment, the gaming machine may initiate a session with a remote hostthat is to provide the ECI or terminate a session with the remote hostthat provided the ECI.

In another embodiment, when a request is received to terminate an ECI,the gaming machine may maintain the session with the remote host butplace the ECI into an inactive or hibernating state and notify theremote host of the ECI status. For example, when the ECI is used tooutput content to a portion of a display and a request is received toterminate the ECI, the gaming machine may display other content in theportion of the display previously utilized by the ECI, such as resizingthe game interface to fit into this portion of the display, place theECI into an inactive state and notify the remote host of its inactivestate without terminating the session. When it is later determined thatthe ECI is to be reopened, the gaming machine may open the ECI in thedisplay again and notify the remote host of the active status of theECI. At this time, the gaming machine may or may not renegotiateresources for the ECI.

Returning to FIGS. 1B and 1C, after the bonus interface 118 and ECI 122are terminated, additional resources related to the touch screen display102 become available on the gaming machine. In this example, ECI 124associated with the service interface 120 may be still active after theECI 122 is terminated. Thus, the gaming machine 100 and the remote host110 may renegotiate the resources assigned to ECI 124.

As is illustrated in FIG. 1C, after the renegotiation of resources, thegame interface 116 and/or the service interface 120 may be resized andassigned to different areas of the touch screen display 102. Inresponse, service interface manager 128 on the remote host 110 generatesnew content from the content 114 stored on the remote host 110 for theservice interface 120 that is consistent with the new display area. Inparticular, the icons displayed in the service interface 120 may berearranged as compared to FIG. 1B, to fit into the new display regionand the remote host 110 may generate a new touch screen mapping thatcorresponds to the rearranged icons. The remote host 110 downloadcontent, information, applications files, etc, to the gaming machine toimplement or all or a portion of the specified changes. The contentprovided from the remote host may be output on the gaming machine 100via the ECI 124 associated with the service interface 120.

As illustrated in FIG. 1B and 1C, the service interface 120 includes anumber of icons that enable a user to select a service. These iconsinclude food, drinks, coffee, information and communications withanother person, such as another game player or a concierge associatedwith a casino. The types of icons displayed may depend on personalpreferences and game play habits of the game player at gaming machine100 as well operating conditions specified at the casino. For instance,a more valued game player may have access to food, drinks and coffeewhile a less valued game player may have access to only drinks andcoffee. Accordingly, for the less valued game player, the food iconwould not be displayed on the service interface 120. Additional detailsregarding service interfaces are described with respect to FIGS. 5A and5B.

To personalize an ECI, such as 124, if the remote host 110 does notstore player information, the remote host 110 may receive playerinformation from another gaming device, such as a player trackingserver, that enables the ECI's controlled by the remote host to bepersonalized. The player information may include information regardinggame play history for a particular player. In addition, while games arebeing played on the gaming machine 100, the remote host 110 may directlyreceive from the gaming machine 100 or via an intermediary device, gameplay information, such as wager amounts, amounts won, amounts lost,types of games played, amounts deposited to the gaming machine, numberof games played, game started, game completed, etc. The game playinformation may or may not be associated with a particular player.

When an icon on the service interface 120 is selected, the touch screeninput data may be sent to the remote 110 which determines what selectionwas made, i.e., food, coffee, drink, etc. In response, as furtherdescribed with respect to FIGS. 5A and 5B, the service interface manager128 on the remote host 110, may generate new content to send to thegaming machine 100. For example, in response to a selection of the foodicon, new content regarding food choices may be sent to the gamingmachine 100. These food choices may be displayed in the serviceinterface 120 region on the touch screen display 102 instead of theicons illustrated in FIGS. 1B and 1C.

After a food choice is selected, in one embodiment, the remote host 110may contact a casino entity providing the food services and may place anorder for the food. When the food is ready, it may be delivered to thegaming machine 100. In another embodiment, after the food choice isselected, the remote host 110 may place an order for the food andinstruct the gaming machine 100 to print a ticket and/or displayinformation indicating a time and/or a location where the food may bepicked up by the game player.

As previously described, the remote host 110 may downloadinformation/content in an appropriate format, such as application filesincluding embedded content, such as video and audio files, and otherinformation and/or instructions for an ECI, such as 122 and 124. Theapplication files may be stored locally on the gaming machine 100. Inaddition, when resources are available (resource monitoring is describedwith respect to at least FIGS. 2 and 3A), one or more application filesor one or more portions of an application file may be stored on thegaming machine 100 even after an ECI has completed execution.

The gaming machine 100 and/or remote host 110 may include logic inregards to storing or purging files. For example, some commonly usedfiles may be stored permanently, other files may be stored for a certaintime period, other files may be stored only as long as a particular ECIis active, other files may be stored as long as storage space isavailable. When application files executed are downloaded from the host110 to the gaming machine, the host may provide information that helpsthe gaming machine manage it applications files. For example, the host110 may designate some application files that are used regularly or arelikely to be needed in the future. The gaming machine may use thisinformation when determining where to store the application file or whendetermining a purge schedule for application files.

One advantage of saving one or more application files on the gamingmachine may be that download times may be reduced. For example, if allor a portion of the application files used to generate the bonusinterface 118 used by ECI 122 are stored on the gaming machine after thebonus interface is terminated, then a similar bonus interface 118 may belater instantiated on the gaming machine using the one or more storedapplication files rather downloading all of the need files in total eachtime.

Further, in some embodiments, two or more ECIs may be able to shareapplication files or a portion of the data stored in an applicationfile. For instance, a video image for a casino logo may be shared by thebonus interface 118 and the service interface 120. Thus, once the videoimage of the casino logo is downloaded and stored for either bonusinterface 118 or the service interface 120, it may be possible to reducea size of the download by letting the host 110 know that this videoimage is already available on the gaming machine. In particularembodiments, the gaming machine 100 or the host 110 may initiate aprocess where information regarding the application files or othercontent stored locally on the gaming machine 100 that may be utilizedwith an ECI is communicated between the remote 110 and the gamingmachine 100. The remote host 100 may use this information to determinewhat information/content/instructions, such as application files orapplication file components to download to the gaming machine 100.

In yet another embodiment, ECIs, such as 118 and 120 may be operable todirectly share information with one another. For example, the bonusinterface 118 may allow a player to when a free meal. When a player haswon a free meal, the ECI 122 generating the bonus interface 118 may beoperable to share this information with the ECI 124 generating theservice interface 120. The service interface 120 may be operable toprovide dinner reservations. Thus, in response to information receivedfrom ECI 122, the service interface 120 may be modified to ask theplayer if they wish to make a reservation at the restaurant and todisplay information about the restaurant where the free meal wasawarded.

In FIG. 1A-1C, the display screen 102 is divided into a number ofportions where the size of the portions and the processes used toprovide the content to the portions vary with time. The arrangement ofdisplay portions and their associated processes are provided forillustrative purposes only. In a particular embodiment, pixel dimensionor screen coordinates for a display portion used to output content maybe selected to provide various shapes, such as substantially circular,diamond shaped, triangular shaped, star-shaped, etc. For example, an ECImay be operable to output content to one or more of the diamonds orstars on the game interface 116 in FIGS. 1A, 1B or 1C. In this example,the ECI may be operable to display content within a moving symbol. Ingeneral, the ECI may be operable to display content within a displayportion that moves around the screen. For example, the display portionassigned to the ECI may be a shape that moves, such as appears to bounceand the ECI may output content to this remote shape.

In another embodiment, one display portion may be surrounded or overlapanother display portion. For example, a first ECI or other process mayoutput content to a rectangular display portion with a “hole” in it. Thehole may simply be another display portion at the location of the holethat is controlled by a second ECI or other process, such as a gameprocess. In one embodiment, the first ECI may be aware of the “hole” andarrange its content so that it does not fall with the hole.

In yet other embodiments, the gaming machine may be operable to providedisplay portions for utilization by an ECI, as “pop-up” windows thatoverlap or overlay one or more other display portions. The gamingmachine may include logic that prevents a pop-up window from blocking animportant gaming component on the display, such as a touch screen inputbutton for a game that is being played, or from blocking important gameinformation on the display, such as an outcome of a game that is beingplayed. Whether the gaming component or the game information isimportant may vary with time, such as when a game is being played or notbeing played.

In general, the gaming machine may allow for “pop-up” windows (also,non-overlapping windows) that may be controlled by in certain locationsin a time dependent manner. For instance, when a gaming machine has beenidle of a particular amount of time, the gaming machine may allow apop-up window for an attract feature where the attract feature isprovided in the pop-window by an ECI and where the pop-up window blocksa portion of the game interface. The pop-up window for the attractfeature may be closed when the gaming machine detects an event that mayindicate that a player wishes to play a game, such as when a billvalidator or coin acceptor is activated or when a card insert isdetected at a card reader. In another example, a “pop-up” window that iscontrolled by an ECI may be allowed after an event indicating a playerno longer wishes to play a game, such as when a player has pressed acash-out button at this point a pop-up window or non-overlapping window,may appear where a remote host via an ECI provides content in thepop-window or non-overlapping window that may entice a player tocontinue playing (e.g., promotional credits, free spin, etc.) or tospend their winnings in some manner (redeem their winnings for a prize).

In particular embodiments, an ECI may be utilized to output content to adisplay portion on the display that is non-contiguous. For instance, theECI may be permitted to output content to a display portion comprising arectangular bar across the top of the display and a rectangular baracross the bottom display where the rectangular bar at the top of thedisplay and the rectangular bar across the bottom of the display don'tover-lap.

In yet particular embodiment, an ECI may be utilized to output contentacross a display portion that spans multiple displays. For instance, theECI may be utilized to display content on all or a portion of asecondary display separate from display 102 and a portion of display102. Thus, in one example, content may be provided that appears to movefrom one display to the other. As another example, the separatesecondary display may not include a touch sensor while the portion ofdisplay 102 does include a touch sensor. Thus, the portion of thedisplay 102 controlled by the ECI may be used to provide input buttonsthat affect content that is displayed on the secondary displaycontrolled by the ECI when the ECI controls a portion of the touchscreen display 102 and all or a portion of the secondary display.

Multiple Remote Hosts

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an interaction between two hosts,202 and 204, and a gaming machine 201 for one embodiment of the presentinvention. Each host controls an ECI on gaming machine 201. Host 202controls ECI 226 and host 204 controls ECI 228. The hosts, 202 and 204,may control their respective ECIs, 226 and 228, in an independent or adependent manner with respect to one another. In the independent case,events generated with respect to the execution of one ECI don't affectthe execution of the other ECI. In the dependent case, one or both ECIsmay generate events that affect one another. In one embodiment of thepresent invention, two remote hosts, such as 202 and 204, may shareaccess to a single ECI and may alternately or simultaneously providecontent for the ECI. Further, as previously described, the ECIs, such as226 and 228, may directly share information without routing it throughtheir respective hosts.

Each host includes a state manager, 206 and 208, content, 214 and 216, ahistory manager, 210 and 212, an interface manager, 218 and 220, and aresource negotiator, 222 and 224. The state manager may maintain a stateof the ECI on the gaming machine. In the event of a malfunction on a)the gaming machine, b) the host or c) in the network between the hostand the gaming machine. The state manager may be designed to storeinformation that enables the remote host, if it chooses to restore anECI on the gaming machine 201 to a state proximate to the stateimmediately prior to an occurrence of the malfunction. In oneembodiment, the gaming machine maintains its own state via state manager234 but not the state of any of the ECIs executing on the gaming machine201. In other embodiments, the gaming machine may maintain some stateinformation regarding the content displayed in the ECI. For example, thegaming machine may capture frames output to its display that includeinformation from an ECI controlling a portion of the display.

The hosts, 202 and 204, may each provide content to ECIs executingsimultaneously on a plurality of gaming machines. The content providedon each gaming machine may be different (e.g., the content may bepersonalized using information regarding the player at each machine orthe hosts may be dynamically responding to events generated on eachgaming machine and adjusting content accordingly) and the gamingmachines served by each host may be different (e.g., host 202 mayprovide content to gaming machines A, B and C while host 204 isproviding content to gaming machines B, C, D). For each gaming machinethat the host provides content via an ECI, the hosts, 202 and 204, maymaintain a state of the content. The content, as described above, maycomprise data and/or instructions provided as application files that arerun and/or parsed by the ECI. The application files may includeinformation/data used by the ECI and commands/instructions for utilizingone or more functions of the ECI. For instance, an ECI may be operableto receive command/instructions in regards to utilizing vector graphiccapabilities of the ECI. In addition, when vector graphics are applied,the ECI may be operable to apply edge smoothing the vector-basedgraphics.

In regards to vector graphics, computers may display graphics in twoformats: vector and bitmap. Bitmaps are made up of discrete units calledpixels. Each pixel contains a single color. When combined, thevariations in pixel color create the patterns that make up an image.Bitmaps contain color information for each pixel in an image plus thedimensions for the image, and transmit images pixel by pixel. To changethe size of a bitmap image, i.e., to fit into a display region withdifferent dimensions than the original bitmap. The bitmap image has tobe regenerated at the desired dimensions or the image has to bestretched, usually with undesirable results.

By comparison, vector graphics store a series of commands/instructionsnecessary to create an image using lines and curves. The commands,called vectors, dictate attributes of lines and curves such asthickness, direction, color, and position. A processor associated withthe master gaming controller may be utilized to process the commandslocally to generate a specified vector image. For instance, the mastergaming controller may execute an ECI that is operable to parse vectorgraphic instructions and generate the image specified by theinstructions.

Vector graphics allow for fine detail and may be easily be resizedwithout losing definition. An image generated with vector graphics maybe modified by changing the attributes of the lines and curvescomprising the image. Vector graphics are best for displaying simpleshapes with flat areas of color, such as icons, logos, and cartoon-styledrawings. Both vector and bitmap graphics may be drawn on request, butvectors may generally use much smaller file sizes and can be drawn muchmore quickly. When downloaded, bitmaps are transmitted pixel by pixel,so file size and download time are proportional to an image'sdimensions. Vector graphics transmit instructions, which are thencarried out by your processor, so that file size and rendering speed aredetermined by the complexity of the instructions, not the size of thegraphic. In various embodiments, various graphical techniques and datamay be utilized for providing video content to an ECI including vectorgraphics, bit map images, movies, etc.

The state managers, 206 and 208, may each generate information that issent to their history manager, 210 and 212, for dispute resolution andauditing purposes. In the event of a dispute, for example, a player maydispute an event that happened three games ago on the gaming machinewhen ECI 226 and ECI 228 were executing. The gaming machine 201 mayinclude logic that enables the gaming machine to contact each host andrequest information regarding one or more states of the ECI it supportedduring the disputed game. The host may send the requested information tothe gaming machine for display.

To enable for dispute resolution, the gaming machine 201 and the hosts202 and 204 may exchange information, such as time stamps, game starttime, game finish time, ECI start time, ECI finish time, event occurredat time A, etc., that enable content generated by each device and storedby the history manger to be recalled and correlated to one another. Thisinformation may be exchanged while the ECI is executing and then againlater when requests for stored information are received by one of thehosts.

As an example of state history management and access, the gaming machine201 may store a start and stop time for each game, whether one or moreECIs were executed during the game and when at least one ECI is executedduring a particular game, information needed to contact the host thatprovided content for the ECI. Thus, the gaming machine 201 may be ableto contact one of the remote host and request ECI states during a timeperiod, which corresponds to a particular game. In response, the hostmay send the requested information to the gaming machine.

The gaming machine 201 may provide a number of shared resources 240 thatmay be utilized by an ECI, such as 226. For instance, in one embodiment,the gaming machine 240 may be operable to share a) processing resourcesfrom a processor, such as 240, b) memory 244 which may comprise volatilememory, such as RAM or non-volatile memory, such as flash memory or ahard drive, c) one or more displays, such as display A 246 or display B,248, d) one or more communication interfaces, such as a networkcommunication interface 250 or a wireless interface (not shown) thatallows the gaming machine to communicate with wireless devices locatedproximate to the gaming machine 201, e) audio devices 252, such asspeakers, amps and signal codecs for processing sound files, f)input/output devices, such as a touch screen 254 or card reader 256.

Prior to launching the ECI, a negotiation may take place between thegaming machines and one or more remote hosts in regards to the resourcesthat may be utilized by the ECI while it is executed on the gamingmachine. In one embodiment, when an ECI, such as 226, is shared orcontrolled by two or more hosts or where each host controls its own ECIbut the ECIs share common resources and/or resource limitations based onthe combined usage of resources used by the ECIs controlled by eachhost, a resource negotiation may take place between the two or morehosts to determine what resources are needed by each host. Thehost-to-host negotiation may allow the hosts to providecontent/instructions to a shared ECI or to each of their ECIs in anintegrated manner so that each host has enough resources to displaytheir content/instructions on the shared ECI or each of their respectiveECIs.

For example, if a first ECI controlled by a first host utilizes display246 and a second ECI controlled by a second host utilizes display 246each host may only need a portion of the display 246 rather than thewhole display. If one or both hosts try to utilize the entire displaythen both hosts may not be able to have content displayed via their ECIssimultaneously. But, if the first and the second host agree to share thedisplay by utilizing only a portion of it via a resource negotiation,then the first and second host may be able to display content via theirECIs on the display 246 at the same time. In general, the gaming machinemay be the final arbiter of what resources are assigned to each ECI andthe host-host negotiations may take place in the context of negotiationswith the gaming machine.

In particular embodiments, the resource negotiators 222 and 224 maycommunicate with the remote resource manager 230 on the gaming machine201 or each other to determine what resources are available for the ECIthat each remote host controls, such as 226 or 228 or for an ECI whichthe remote hosts share. The one or more remote hosts may use thisinformation to adjust the content that is sent to the gaming machine forits respective ECI. For instance, display 246 and display 248 may be ofdifferent sizes. Thus, at some times, a remote host may be provideaccess to display 246 and provide content to an ECI formatted to becompatible with the resolution of display 246 while at other timesdisplay 246 may not be available and the remote host may provide contentformatted to be compatible with the resolution of display 248 (Thecontent provided at different times to the displays 246 and 248 may bethe same or different content). Further details of resource managementare described with respect to at least FIGS. 3A and 3C.

In yet another embodiment, the remote hosts, 202 and 204, may competefor access to resources on the gaming machine. For example, remote host202 may provide one advertising stream/content and remote host 204 mayprovide another advertising stream/content. The gaming machine may allowonly one advertising stream/content at a time. Thus, the gaming machine201 may initiate negotiations where access to its resources goes to theremote host, which is the highest bidder.

The gaming machine may notify potential hosts when resources becomeavailable and solicit bids for the resources from two or more hosts. Inone embodiment, the gaming machine 201 while displaying content from onehost may receive a bid for resources from another remote host and switchaccess to the gaming machine from a first remote host, such as 202, to asecond remote host, such as 204, after receiving a better bid forresources from the second remote host 202.

In yet another embodiment, the gaming machine 201 may provideinformation regarding various resource packages with various costs topotential remote hosts. The cost of a resource package may affect theamount of resources and priority of access of resources afforded to aremote host providing an ECI. For instance, access to a larger portionof a display that is shared may cost more than access to a smallerportion of the display. As another example, access to a display wherecontrol of the display is not to be switched to another remote hostprovided ECI or taken over by the gaming machine for a particular timeperiod may cost more than sharing access to the display with anotherremote host and allowing the gaming machine to intermittently use thedisplay.

The interface managers, 218 and 220, may be responsible for determiningwhat content to send each ECI and sending the content. Further, theinterface managers may be designed to respond to events generated on thegaming machine. For example, when interface manager 218 receivesinformation indicating a touch screen has been activated on the gamingmachine via the event manger 262, the interface 218 manager maydetermine whether the touch screen is activated in a display area thatit controls and whether content displayed on ECI 226 needs to beadjusted. As another example, when the interface managers, 218 or 220,receive information regarding the resolution of a particular display andvisual content is to be displayed, the interface managers, may selectcontent stored on their respective remote host that is closet to aneeded resolution, reformat (if needed) the content, generate newcontent to fit the resolution of the particular display or locate and/ordownload needed content from another source, such as another remotehost.

In particular embodiments, an ECI and/or remote host may not be grantedaccess to all of the features of the shared resources. For example, whenthe card reader is operable to read/write data to a card, such as asmart card. The ECI may be allowed to receive data read from a card butnot write data to the card. In one embodiment, during the negotiationphase, the gaming machine may provide a) a list of available sharedresources, b) features of the shared resources that may be controlled bythe remote host directly and/or via an ECI including commands and dataformats that allow the features to be utilized, c) under what conditionsthe features may be utilized, etc.

In one embodiment, the data formats, commands and/or instructions thatan ECI or remote host may utilize may be incorporated in a communicationprotocol that is utilized by both the ECI and/or remote host and gamingmachine (or gaming device). In particular embodiment, thecommands/instructions that the ECI and the remote host may communicateto the gaming machine, such as to control a device, may be high-levelcommands that are translated by the gaming machine to low-levelinstructions that are used to actually perform the operation that isrequested. For instance, to spin a bonus wheel coupled to the gamingmachine, a remote host and/or ECI may send a “spin wheel” command to thegaming machine. The gaming machine may translate the command to a numberof low-level instructions that a stepper motor coupled to the gamingmachine to be controlled. In another embodiment, the ECI and/or remotehost may be operable to provide low-level instructions that allow adevice to be directly controlled. For instance, the ECI and/or remotehost may be able to send the low-level instructions for controlling thestepper motor directly to the bonus wheel without needing the gamingmachine to translate.

In a particular embodiment, the communications between the gamingmachine and the remote host may be separated into two parts. The firstpart of the communications may include information regarding gamingmachine transactions, such as money handling, metering, game outcomes,random number generation, player identification information. In general,the first part of the communications may include information that isgenerated as a result of game play from a primary game of chanceexecuted on the gaming machine. In one embodiment, the gaming machinetransaction information may be communicated using the G2S protocolapproved by the Gaming Standards Association (Fremont, Calif.). Thesecond part of the communications between the gaming machine and theremote host may enable the communications between the remote host andthe ECI, such as commands, instructions and/or data sent between theremote host and the ECI, which may include content for the ECI tooutput.

One advantage separating the communications in this manner is that theECI may be isolated from game play information. When the ECI is isolatedfrom game play information, it may result in a more secure system. Thehigher level of security is based on the assumption that if a processexecuting on the gaming machine is unaware of game play information,such as the state of a game, it will more difficult for the process toaffect the game in unacceptable manner. It is noted that although theECI may not be aware of game play information, as described in theprevious paragraph, the remote host may be aware of game playinformation.

The game play information described in the previous paragraph may berelated to information generated as a result of play of a primary gameof chance generated on the gaming machine. Further, in some embodiments,the ECI itself may provide the play of games separate from the primarygame. Nevertheless, the ECI may not be aware that is providing the playof a game and may be still unaware of any game play information that isgenerated. From the perspective of the ECI, it is simply outputtingcontent utilizing commands, instructions and data provided by a remotehost where the ECI does not distinguish between game related content andnon-game related content.

In particular embodiments, the ECI may be operable to process inputgenerated as a result of the play of the game provided by the ECI butmay not be operable to distinguish this input from other types of input,i.e., it may not be configured to determine the function associated withthe input. For instance, the ECI may be instructed by the remote host togenerate a bet button on a touch screen display for a game outpututilizing the ECI. The ECI may be operable to receive input from thetouch screen and determine that a particular button has been pressed.The ECI may forward this information to the remote host and the remotehost may determine that this button corresponds to a bet button. The ECImay be unaware the button for a bet has been pressed or activated, i.e.,it is unaware of the function of the button.

In particular embodiments, when an ECI and/or remote host is access orcontrol is prohibited for one or more resources, such as utilizing aperipheral device or utilizing one of the features of the peripheraldevice coupled to the gaming machine, and the ECI and/or remote hostgenerates an instruction that tries to utilize or control the resource,then the gaming machine may respond in various manners. For example, inone embodiment, if the device or device feature the ECI and/or remotehost is trying to access or control is not critical, then the gamingmachine may simply ignore the command or instruction and possibly notifythe device that it is trying to perform a function that is not availableto it. For instance, the ECI and/or remote host may send instructions toa gaming machine to flash lights when this function is not available toit, and the gaming machine may simply ignore the instructions.

In another embodiment, the ECI and/or remote host may try to access orcontrol a critical device in a manner that is prohibited. For instance,ECI or remote host could try to send a command to a printer to print acashless ticket of a particular value, which is not allowed. In somepossible responses, the gaming machine may 1) log the event, 2)terminate the connection with the ECI, 3) enter a tilt state or 4)combinations thereof. Some details of tilt handling that may be utilizedwith various embodiments are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,890,259,entitled, “Modular Tilt Handling,” which is incorporated by referenceand for all purposes.

In particular embodiments, the available resources that may be utilizedby a remote host as part of an ECI may vary from gaming device to gamingdevice. For example, a casino-type gaming machine with random numbergeneration capability may have more capabilities that may be utilized inan ECI than a portable hand-held device. Further, in other embodiments,the capabilities of a gaming device, such as gaming machine 201, thatmay be offered to a remote host for utilization may vary depending onthe remote host. For example, some remote hosts may be more trusted thanother remote hosts and thus may be afforded greater access to devices onthe gaming machine than other remote hosts.

During operation of an ECI, the gaming machine may check the resourcesutilized by an ECI to determine whether the resources utilized by theECI are in compliance with limits established for the ECI, such asduring the negotiation phase. The gaming machine 201 may utilize itslocal resource management 238 including the partition manager 256, thedevice scheduler 258 and the resource metering 260 on the gaming machine201 to check the resource utilization of one or more ECIs individuallyor a group of ECIs in combination against resource allocations for eachindividual ECI or the group of ECIs. When resource allocation for an ECIis exceeded, a number of remedial actions may be taken. For instance,when CPU resources are exceeded, the ECI may be denied further CPUcycles and the display characteristics of the ECI may slow down andbecome jerky. Further, the gaming machine may notify the ECI that it hasit exceeded it resource requirements. As another example, when resourcesare exceeded, the gaming machine may terminate a session with the remotehost and stop execution of the ECI on the gaming machine. The executionof the ECI may be stopped permanently or may be stopped temporarilyuntil more resources become available on the gaming or until the remotehost adjusts the content of the ECI.

As examples, an ECI may exceed its allocated resources because thegaming machine downwardly adjusted the resources available to the ECIafter the start of an ECI session or because the remote host didn'tcorrectly estimate an amount of resources it needed. In response tolearning it is exceeding resources it has been allocated on the gamingmachine, the remote host, such as 202 or 204, may adjust their contentto consume less resources on the gaming machine. In particularembodiments, the remote hosts, such as 202 and 204, may be operable todynamically adjust the content that is sent to the gaming machine forutilization by an ECI after a session has been initiated (at the startof the session an initial resource allocation may be specified) 1) tosatisfy changing resource allocations on the gaming machine, which maychange, and thus, to prevent it from exceeding its resource allocation.

Since the manner in which an ECI and/or remote host may be allowed toaccess or utilize a gaming machine may vary, such as from one remotehost to another, from one time to another and different gaming machinemay have different capabilities (e.g., a gaming machine may havedifferent capabilities than a portable), the gaming machine may includelogic for checking instructions and/or data received from an ECI and/orremote host to comply with their access privileges. For example forillustrative purposes only as a communication protocol doesn't have tobe utilized, when the instructions and/or data are codified in acommunication protocol, the gaming machine may first check to seewhether the instructions and/or data is a recognized part of theprotocol. Then, even if the instructions and/or data is part of theprotocol, the gaming machine may not offer the capability requested,thus compatibility of instructions and/or data with the gaming machinecapabilities may be checked (At the negotiation phase, the instructionsand/or data that the gaming machine is capable of utilizing, which maybe a subset of the instructions and/or data that may be communicated aspart of the communication protocol may be established.) Then, theinstructions and/or data may be checked against the access privilegesfor the particular ECI and/or remote host. For each remote host and itsassociated ECI, information regarding resource access privileges may bestored (The information may have been generated at the negotiation phaseor at some other time). The privilege and/or error checking may beperformed by the privilege checking logic 274 in the local resourcemanagement 238.

Resource Allocation

FIGS. 3A to 3C is a block diagram showing hardware and softwarecomponents and their interactions on a gaming machine for embodiments ofthe present invention. In embodiments of the present invention, theoperating system may maintain “resource partitions.” A resourcepartition may be logical abstraction implemented in the operating systemlogic that enables the operating system to monitor and limit theresources used by all of the process or process threads executing ineach resource partition. At any given time, a resource partition mayinclude one or more member processes or member process threads. Forexample, in one embodiment of the present invention, a QNX operatingsystem (Ottawa, Canada) may be employed. With QNX, each thread ofexecution may be individually assigned to a different resourcepartition. Thus, one process may have several threads each running indifferent partitions. In general, the operating system may be a POSIXcompliant operating system, such as Unix and Linux variants, Windows™NT, 2000, XP, Vista, etc.

Resource partitioning is one example or aspect of virtualization.Virtualization is the process of presenting a logical grouping or subsetof computing resources so that they can be accessed in ways that givebenefits over the original configuration. Virtualizations refer to theabstraction of resources in many different aspects of computing and mayinclude virtual machines and systems management software. Thus, theexamples of resource partition are provided for illustrative purposesonly and are not intended to limit the invention to virtualizationsproviding only resource partitioning.

As noted above, threads may be assigned to different partitions in someembodiments of the present invention. A thread may be short for a threadof execution. Threads are a way for a program to split itself into twoor more simultaneously (or pseudo-simultaneously) running tasks. Threadsand processes differ from one operating system to another, but ingeneral, the way that a thread is created and shares its resources maybe different from the way a process does.

Multiple threads may be executed in parallel on many computer systems.This multithreading may be provided by time slicing, where a singleprocessor switches between different threads, in which case theprocessing is not literally simultaneous, for the single processor isonly really doing one thing at a time. This switching can happen so fastas to give the illusion of simultaneity to an end user. For instance, atypical computing device may contain only one processor, but multipleprograms can be run at once, such as an ECI for player trackingalongside an a game program; though the user experiences these things assimultaneous, in truth, the processor may be quickly switching back andforth between these separate threads. On a multiprocessor system,threading can be achieved via multiprocessing, wherein different threadscan run literally simultaneously on different processors.

In embodiments of the present invention, multiprocessor systems withmultiple CPUs may be used in conjunction with multiprocessing. Forexample, an ECI process or ECI thread may be executed on one or moreCPUs while a game is executed on one or more different CPUs. In aparticular embodiment, in a multiprocessor system, CPU accessibility maybe limited according to the application. For instance, ECIs may be onlyexecuted on certain processors and games on other processors. The ECIsmay be prevented from utilizing processors dedicated to executing gamesor other applications.

Threads are distinguished from traditional multi-tasking operatingsystem processes in that processes are typically independent, carryconsiderable state information, have separate address spaces, andinteract only through system-provided inter-process communicationmechanisms. Multiple threads, on the other hand, typically share thestate information of a single process, and share memory and otherresources directly. Although, as noted above, threads of the sameprocess may be assigned to different resource partitions. Contextswitching between threads in the same process may be typically fasterthan context switching between processes.

In general, the term, “process” refers to a manipulation of data on adevice, such as a computer. The data may be “processed” in a number ofmanners, such as by using logical instructions instantiated in hardware,by executing programming logic using a processor, or combinationsthereof. Thus, a “process” for the purposes of this specification maydescribe one or more logical components instantiated as hardware,software or combinations thereof that may be utilized to allow data tobe manipulated in some manner. Therefore, the terms “process” and“process thread” as described are provided for the purposes of clarityonly and are not meant to be limiting.

Four resource partitions, 360, 366, 368 and 370 are illustrated in FIG.3A. An operating system resource partition 360 that includes processes(or process threads) executed by the operating system. A game resourcepartition 366 from which game processes (or process threads) areexecuted. An ECI resource partition 382 from which a first ECI process382 (or ECI process thread) may be executed and an ECI resourcepartition 368 from which a second ECI process 380 (or ECI processthread) may be executed. As noted above, resource partitioning may beperformed at the process level, the process thread level or combinationsthereof.

In one embodiment, resource partition definitions 308, such as resourcesallocated to each resource partition and processes that are enabled toexecute in each partition (e.g. partition assignments 310) may be storedin the secure memory 326. Data stored in the secure memory may have beenauthenticated using the authentication components 304 stored on the BootROM 302. When a process is launched by the operating system, it maycheck to see which resource partition to assign the process using thepartition assignments 310, which may include a list of processes thatmay be executed in each partition. In one embodiment, some processes maybe assigned to more than one resource partition. Thus, when theresources associated with a first resource partition are being fullyutilized, the process may be executed from a second resource partitionwith available resources.

In another embodiment, the partition assignment information may bestored with each executable image, such as images, 316, 318 and 320.When a process or process thread is launched, the operating system maydetermine which partition to assign the process or the process thread(In general, each process will have at least one process thread). Withthis method, new executable images may be downloaded to the gamingmachine from a remote device that are not listed in the partitionassignments 310 and still be assigned to a resource partition.

In a particular embodiment, the operating system may only allow one ECIprocess or ECI process thread to execute in a partition at one time. Inother embodiments, a plurality of ECI processes may be executed from asingle partition at one time. When only a single ECI process is allowedto execute from a partition at one time, the amount of resourcesavailable to the ECI process occupying the partition may be morepredictable. This type of architecture may be valuable when ECIs areprovided from two or more different hosts simultaneously where eachremote host doesn't necessarily know the resource requirements utilizedby an ECI from another remote host. When two or more ECIs are allowed tooccupy a single partition and execute simultaneously, the resourcesprovide to each ECI, respectively, may be more vary more if eachrespective ECI is competing for a limited amount of resources.

The resource competition may be become more acute when the resourcesneeded by two or more ECIs are near or greater than one or moreresources (e.g., CPU cycles or memory) provided in a partition. In someembodiments, the gaming machine may prioritize resource utilization byeach ECI process. For instance, an execution priority may be assigned toeach ECI process executing in a resource partition such that based onthe priority one ECI process is favored over another ECI process whenthey are both competing for resources.

The priority assigned to each ECI process may be based on anotherfactors. A priority to resources may be assigned to an ECI process basedupon its function. For instance, an ECI for providing a bonus interfacemay be given a higher priority to resources than an ECI for providingadvertising. In another embodiment, a priority may be assigned to an ECIprocess in accordance with a price paid to allow the ECI process and itscontent to be presented on the gaming device. In general, prioritizationfor utilizing resources is another way of providing virtualization on agaming device.

Resources that may be monitored and limited for each partition includebut are not limited CPU usage, memory usage, such as RAM usage, NV-RAMusage, disk memory usage, etc., GPU (graphics processing usage), networkbandwidth, sound card usage and access to gaming devices, such asdisplays, audio devices, card readers, bill validators (e.g., asdescribed with respect to FIG. 2, for some resource partitions, forsecurity purposes, access to certain devices, such as bill validatorsand cashless devices, or device features may not be available).Resources that may be monitored on the gaming machine 300 include theexecutable space 338, the processing devices 348, the gaming devices 358and the secure memory 326. The local resource metering process 238 maymonitor resource usage for each partition. In FIG. 3A, the localresource metering process 238 is shown monitoring, device A, device B,network bandwidth usage, processor usage of processors, 340 and 342,power usage, and memory usage.

The local resource metering process 238 may report information to theresource partition manager 256. In particular embodiments, based uponlimits placed on each resource partition, the resource partition manager256 may prevent new processes from executing in a particular resourcepartition or may even terminate certain processes to free up resourcesprocesses executing in other partitions. For example, if the output ofthe game on the gaming machine 300 is less than optimal because of theresources utilized by the ECI 380 or ECI 382, the gaming machine maysuspend execution or terminate execution of one or both of the ECI 380or ECI 382.

In particular embodiments of the present invention, prior to enabling aremote host to control an ECI on the gaming machine 300 and based on itsresource partitioning system, the gaming machine 300 may notify theremote host of information regarding the resources it may have availableto use while the ECI it wishes to control is executing on the gamingmachine 300. In one embodiment, the remote resource manager 230 mayreport this information to the remote host. In another embodiment, thegaming machine may broadcast its available resources to a plurality ofremote hosts that may control an ECI on the gaming machine 300. Thesemessages may be broadcast at regular intervals and change depending on acurrent resource utilization on the gaming machine.

The resource information may include information regarding an upperlimit of resources that may be available (e.g., a maximum of 10% CPUusage, 100 MB of RAM), a lower limit of resources that may be available(e.g., a minimum of 5% CPU usage, 50 MB of RAM, no audio capabilities),a prediction of a range of resources that may be available over time(e.g., at least 400×300 pixel window with periodic access to a 1600×1200pixel window and at least 4 channels of 32 channel sound card withperiodic access to all channels), a prediction of platform performancebased on the available resources (e.g., an output frame rate of 25frames per second at 60 Hz screen refresh rate using 16 bits of color).An upper and lower limit of resources may be provided because theresources available on the gaming machine may change with time while anECI is executing.

Additional partitioning information may include a display mode, such asa translucent overlay of the game screen or a display location (e.g.,left third of the display screen). Further, information sent to theremote host may include game theme, graphics and sound informationcurrently executing on the gaming machine 300. The remote host mayutilize this information to customize content for an ECI executing onthe gaming machine 300 that is thematically consistent with a gameexecuting on the gaming machine 300.

In addition, the gaming machine may send file information to the remotehost information regarding files, such as application files executed byan ECI, stored in the resource partitions. The files may have beenpreviously downloaded from the remote host or a different remote host atan earlier. One or more files or information/data/commands within theone or more files may be of use to the remote host and thus, the remotehost may structure a download based on the file information. Forinstance, the remote host may download files/data/content that is onlyneeded in addition to the files/data/content already stored on thegaming machine.

In response to the resource information it receives from the gamingmachine, the remote host may determine whether the resources areadequate to output the content it wishes to present on the gamingmachine via the ECI. In some embodiments, the remote host may adjust thecontent to output via the ECI to account for the available resources.For instance, when resources are limited, pre-rendered images, 2-Dgraphics or vector-based graphics may be used instead of dynamicallyrendered 3-D graphics. As another example, if network traffic is high,such that the network bandwidth is limited, the remote host may reducethe amount of data sent to gaming machine. Details of graphical relatedapparatus and methods that may be utilized in embodiments of the presentinvention are described with respect to U.S. Pat. No. 6,887,157, filedAug. 9, 2001, by LeMay, et al., and entitled, “Virtual Cameras and 3-Dgaming environments in a gaming machine,” which is incorporated hereinand for all purposes.

In a particular embodiment, the remote host may request additionalresources than the gaming machine 300 has said are available. Inresponse, the gaming machine 300 may temporarily create a resourcepartition, such as 370 or 368, or another type of virtualization (e.g.,a virtual machine) that enables the remote host to access the additionalrequested resources while the ECI is executed. In other embodiments, theresources available on the gaming machine may not be suitable for thecontent that the remote host has available and the remote host maydecide not to control an ECI, such as 382 or 380.

One advantage of using a virtualization, such as resource partitions,may be that a remote host in control of an ECI on a gaming machine maybe enabled to control of resources while guaranteeing adequate gameperformance. A gaming machine operator always wants a game player to bepresented with a quality game experience including presentations withdesirable graphics and sounds. If providing access to gaming machineresources via an ECI results in an excessive degradation of the gameexperience (e.g., the graphics become jagged or jumpy), then sharing ofgaming resources using an ECI would not be desirable. New gaming machineare becoming increasingly powerful in their capabilities. The use ofECIs in combination with resource partitioning enables under utilizedgaming machine resources to be used in an effective manner whileinsuring that a quality game experience is always is provided to a gameplayer.

Another advantage of using a virtualization, such as resourcepartitions, may be that testing requirements related to the developmentof game software and ECI software may be simplified. One method ofensuring a quality game experience is maintained on a gaming devicewhile a game process for generating a game is executing on the gamingdevice while one or more ECI processes are executing is to extensivelytest the one or more ECI processes and game process under a variety ofconditions. Testing every possible ECI process in combination with oneor more possible ECI process in conjunction with every different gamevariation quickly becomes very unattractive in terms of both cost andtime.

Using virtualization, where the maximum resources allowed to be utilizedby one or more ECI processes are prevented from exceeding a set limit,the gaming software for generating a game on the gaming machine may betested where a maximum resource utilization allowed for the one or moreECI processes is simulated while the game is being executed. The gamemay be tested under a variety of operational conditions, such as when itis using a maximum number of CPU cycles or graphic processor cycles, toensure that the generated game is adequate at the maximum resourceutilization condition allowed for the one or more ECI processes. Afterthe testing, it may be concluded that the game performance will beadequate for any combination of one or more ECI processes using up tothe maximum allowable resources for the ECIs. Thus, new ECI processesmay be developed after the game is released without having to test theperformance of the game in combination with each new ECI.

In addition, each ECI process may be tested to determine whether theyperform adequately under various resource conditions up to the maximumresources allowed for a single ECI on a gaming device. This process mayallow ECI developers to develop and test ECIs and associated contentthat are appropriate for different resource ranges up to the maximumallowed resources without needing to test them in combination with eachpossible game. Further, the developer may develop multiple ECIs andassociated content to perform a particular function using differentamount of resources with the knowledge that each ECI will performadequately after testing. For example, a first ECI may use vectorgraphics to provide an animation, which requires less memory and allowsfor a faster download time, as compared to a second ECI that usespre-rendered bitmaps to provide the animation where the function of thefirst and second ECI are the same.

FIG. 3B is a block diagram of a gaming machine 100 including hardwareand software components for one embodiment of the present invention. Thegaming machine 100 may include RNG software or the gaming machine 100may be a terminal in a central determination system where the randomnumbers are generated remotely from the gaming machine or combinationsthereof (see at least FIGS. 6 and 7 for more possible gamingmachine/device embodiments). ECIs that may be used in conjunction withvarious gaming devices coupled to the gaming machine to provide gamingservices on the gaming machine 100 under control of a remote host aredescribed. The ECI's may be a component of gaming machine software 103and may be executed as processes by a gaming operating system on thegaming machine 100 (see at least FIGS. 1A and 4).

In one embodiment, the gaming operating system is part of the mastergaming controller of the gaming machine. The master gaming controlleralso controls the play of a game of chance on the gaming machine 100. Inanother embodiment, logic devices separate from the master gamingcontroller, such as a logic device on a player tracking unit, may alsobe used to execute the ECI processes.

In one such embodiment, a player tracking unit including a logic deviceexecuting an operating system and coupled to the gaming machine may alsobe used to host ECI processes controlled by remote host including aremote logic device. That is, the gaming machine disclosed herein may beassociated with or otherwise integrated with one or more player trackingsystems. In this embodiment, the gaming machine and/or player trackingsystem tracks the player's gaming activity at the gaming machine. In onesuch embodiment, the gaming machine and/or associated player trackingsystem timely tracks when a player inserts their player tracking card tobegin a gaming session and also timely tracks when a player removestheir player tracking card when concluding play for that gaming session.In another embodiment, rather than requiring a player to insert a playertracking card, the gaming machine may utilize one or more portabledevices carried by a player, such as a cell phone, a radio frequencyidentification tag or any other suitable wireless device to track when aplayer begins and ends a gaming session. In another embodiment, thegaming machine may utilize any suitable biometric technology or tickettechnology to track when a player begins and ends a gaming session.

During one or more gaming sessions, the gaming machine and/or playertracking system tracks any suitable information, such as any amountswagered, average wager amounts and/or the time these wagers are placed.In different embodiments, for one or more players, the player trackingsystem includes the player's account number, the player's card number,the player's first name, the player's surname, the player's preferredname, the player's player tracking ranking, any promotion statusassociated with the player's player tracking card, the player's address,the player's birthday, the player's anniversary, the player's recentgaming sessions, or any other suitable data.

In another such embodiment, the remote host maintains or keeps track ofthe play and/or other activity on or relating to the gaming machines inthe gaming system. In one embodiment, the remote host keeps track of theplay on each gaming machine including at least: (1) the amount wageredby the player(s) for each play of the primary game for each gamingmachine (i.e., a total or partial coin-in or wager meter which tracksthe total or partial coin-in wagers placed on all of the primary gamesfor all of the gaming machines in the gaming system); and (2) the timethe wagers are placed or the amount of time between each play of theprimary game for each gaming machine. In another embodiment, each gamingmachine includes a separate coin-in, wager meter or pool which tracksthe total or partial coin-in or wagers placed at that gaming machine. Itshould be appreciated that the player playing a designed gaming machinemay change during this tracking and that this tracking can beindependent of the specific player playing the designated gamingmachine. It should be further appreciated that the wagers placed may betracked in any suitable compatible or comparable manner such as creditswagered (i.e., if all of the system gaming machines are of the samedenomination) or monetary units (e.g., total dollars or other currency)wagered. It should be further appreciated that tracking in monetaryunits may account for gaming machines having multi-denominations and/orfor gaming machines of different denominations and/or gaming machineswhich accept different currencies.

Via the remote host communication 113, the ECI 124 may receive contentfrom a remote host 110. As described with respect to at least FIG. 2, afirst ECI may receive content from a first remote host and a second ECImay receive content from a second remote host. In a particularembodiment, the content received from the remote host 110 comprisesvideo and/or audio content that may be output on display devices, suchas 16, 34, and 42 and audio devices, such as 12 and 14, coupled to thegaming machine 100. Further, the remote host 110 may send via the remotehost communication 113 instructions for controlling the physical devices105 and also receive input from the physical devices 105. The remotehost 110 may send via the remote host communication 113content/instructions to the ECI and instructions for controlling one ormore of the physical devices 105. The instructions for the physicaldevices 105 from the remote host 110 may be routed from the remote hostcommunication to the hardware/software interface 101 and then to thephysical devices 105.

A program, such as an Adobe™ flash player or compatible player, may beused to output content received from the remote host. The program may beused to output content for a number of different game services, such asplayer tracking, ATM, communications, lottery, concierge, reservationsand entertainment. In some embodiments, the gaming machine may not storecontent related to a particular ECI. After the ECI is launched, the ECImay loaded into a memory device or a protected memory space on thegaming machine 100, then the gaming machine 100 may load contentreceived from the remote host directly into volatile memory. After theECI is terminated, the downloaded content associate with the ECI may belost and the volatile memory used by the ECI may be assigned to otherprocesses. In one embodiment, streaming of information, such as videoand audio information, may be employed.

In one embodiment, the memory device of the gaming machine includes, butis not limited to, random access memory (RAM), which can includenon-volatile RAM (NVRAM), magnetic RAM (MRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM)and other forms as commonly understood in the gaming industry. In oneembodiment, the memory device includes read only memory (ROM). In oneembodiment, the memory device includes flash memory and/or EEPROM(electrically erasable programmable read only memory). Any othersuitable magnetic, optical and/or semiconductor memory may operate inconjunction with the gaming machine disclosed herein. In one alternativeembodiment, part or all of the program code and/or operating datadescribed above can be stored in a detachable or removable memorydevice, including, but not limited to, a suitable cartridge, disk, CDROM, DVD, flash memory, or USB memory device.

In another embodiment, the content associated with a particular ECI maybe loaded into volatile memory but may also be stored to a non-volatilememory, such as disk memory or flash memory. In FIG. 3B, content relatedto a number of ECI's is stored on the gaming machine and illustrated asECI content storage 111. An advantage of this approach is that when aremote host provides a game service multiple times on the gaming machine100, the host may be able to use some content previously stored on thegaming machine and thus, reduce a size of a download that is needed toprovide the game service.

Storage of previously used ECI content, such as ECI content storage 111,may lead to additional communications between the remote host 110 andthe gaming machine 100. For example, the remote host 110 and the gamingmachine 100 may comprise logic that enables the remote host 110 to 1)determine and validate the ECI content 111 stored on the gaming machine100 and 2) direct the ECI 122 to load content from the ECI contentstorage 111. The ECI 122 may load content storage 111 in combinationwith content received directly from the remote host 111 to provide agame service.

In another example, the remote host 110 and/or the gaming machine 100may comprise logic that determines what content to save to the ECIcontent storage 111 and what content to delete from the ECI contentstorage 111. In one embodiment, content may be deleted from the ECIcontent storage 111 when a storage limit is reached. In anotherembodiment, content may be deleted when it becomes old or outdated. Theremote host may send information to gaming machine that prioritizes whatcontent to delete first. Thus, for example, when a storage limit isreached, the gaming machine may delete content with a lower priorityprior to deleting content with a higher priority. In another example,stored content may relate to upcoming events that may eventually pass orlinked to a holiday period that may pass. As another example, the storedcontent may be simply changed to maintain player interest. In yetanother example, the gaming machine track a last time content wasutilized or a frequency of utilization and delete content items thatwere last used a long time ago versus recently used content items ordelete content items that are used more frequently before deletingcontent items used less frequently.

ECI Applications

Examples stored ECI content include but are not limited to 1) virtualplayer tracking 612 and 614 which may be used to provide player trackingservices, 2) a virtual Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) 616 which mayenable the gaming machine to provide fund transfers and monetary accountmanagement, 3) a virtual entertainment center 618 which may enable thegaming machine to provide one or more entertainment services besidesgame play to the game player, 4) a virtual lottery machine 620 that mayenable a player to purchase a lottery ticket of some sort at the gamingmachine, 5) a virtual change machine 622 that may enable a player toobtain change at a gaming machine, 6) a virtual sports book 624 that mayenable a player to make a wager on an event at the gaming machine, tomonitor events, to receive results and to cash out a winning eventticket, 7) a virtual communication center 625 that may enable a playerto a) communicate with other game players, other individuals or a casinohost, b) send and receive e-messages and/or c) locate other players, 8)a virtual concierge 628 that enables a player to a) learn about andobtain various hotel/casino, restaurant, entertainment and travelservices and b) make reservations, 9) a virtual vending machine 628 thatenables a player to purchase various vending items at the gaming machineand 10) a virtual kiosk (not shown) that enables for a) Internet enabledservices, such as web-browsing, b) registration services such as for aloyalty program and c) comping and prize redemption associated with aloyalty program. As is described above, the ECI content doesn't have tobe permanently stored on the gaming machine and may be received directlyfrom the remote host 110 and stored temporarily in a non-volatilememory, such as a RAM while the ECI 124 is executed. Additionalapplications that may be adapted to provide embodiments using ECIs on agaming machine are described with respect to U.S. Pat. No. 6,712,698,titled, “Game Service interfaces for Player Tracking Touch ScreenDisplay,” originally filed, Sep. 20, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,574,entitled, “Method and Apparatus for Providing Entertainment Content on aGaming machine,” originally filed Sep. 19, 2000 and U.S. Pat. No.6,997,803, entitled, “Virtual Gaming Peripherals for a gaming machine,originally filed Mar. 12, 2002 each of which are incorporated herein byreference and for all purposes.

The virtual vending machine 628 may enable a gaming machine to dispenseitems directly to the player, enable the player to order an item, whichis brought to the player or sent to the player, or dispense a media thatis redeemable for the item. In addition, the virtual vending machine 628may be used to redeem or order prizes or merchandise. The virtual playertracking ECI's, 612 and 614, may be used to provide player trackingservices. Addition details of player tracking services that may beincorporated into an ECI are described in co-pending U.S. applicationSer. No. 09/642,192, filed Aug. 18, 2000, by LeMay, et al. and entitled,“Virtual Player Tracking and Related Services,” which is incorporatedherein in its entirety and for all purposes.

As described above, the ECI may output its content to a combination ofgaming devices in the physical gaming devices 105 to provide a gamingservice and present its content. In one embodiment, the ECI process maycontrol or issue commands to devices and the remote host controlling theECI may also issue commands to physical devices in conjunction with theECI. Four examples of gaming device combinations are shown forillustrative purposes. The device combinations utilized by an ECI and aremote host may vary according to the gaming devices available on aparticular gaming machine.

As an example of device combinations that may be used with an ECI and aremote host 110, the remote host may control the virtual ATM ECI 616 inconjunction the bill validator 30, the printer 18, the key pad 22, thedisplay 34, the card reader 24 and the touch screen 35 to provide ATMservices. The card reader 22 may be used to accept an ATM card. The keypad 22 may be used to enter a pin number. The bill validator 30 may beused to accept cash or printed tickets with a cash value. Funds enteredinto the gaming machine may be transferred to a bank account. Thedisplay 34 and the touch screen 35 may be used to display and selectvarious ATM services. The printer 18 may be used to provide receipts andprint cashless tickets, which may be used for game play in other gamingmachines.

A virtual sports book ECI 624 and the virtual lottery machine ECI 620may also provide services using the combination of devices described forthe virtual ATM ECI 616. However, the context in which the devices areused may be different. For instance, the printer 18 may be used to printa lottery ticket for the virtual lottery machine 620 and a wager ticketfor the virtual sports book 164 instead of a receipt. Also, the display34 and touch screen 35 may be used to display and make lottery andsports bets selections instead of ATM selections. Logic residing on theremote host 110 may enable it determine the context the device is beingused.

As another example, a virtual entertainment center peripheral ECI 618may control a payment or coin acceptor 28, input buttons 32, thesecondary display 42 and speakers 12 and 14 to provide entertainmentsources to a player. In one embodiment, the virtual entertainment centerECI 618 may act as a musical video jukebox. Using the input buttons 32,a player may select musical videos, which are output on the secondarydisplay 42 and speakers 12 and 14. In another embodiment, the player maybe able to select a musical format, which is output on speakers 12 and14. In yet another embodiment, the player may be able to watch asporting event on the secondary display while playing a game on thegaming machine. In some cases, the player may be required to depositmoney via the payment acceptor 28 to use the virtual entertainmentcenter.

In yet another embodiment, a player may be enabled to win or purchaseentertainment content and then download the entertainment content to aportable device carried by the player. An interface for communicatingwith the portable device, such as a wireless interface, may be coupledto the gaming machine to enable the download to the portable device. Inanother example, the player may receive a voucher valid for theentertainment content that is redeemable at another location.

In yet another example of a gaming service provided by an ECI, a virtualplayer tracking ECI, such as 612 and 614, may be used to provide playertracking services. Different combinations of gaming devices may be usedto provide the same gaming service. For instance, the first virtualplayer tracking ECI 612 uses the key pad 22, the card reader 24 and thesmall display 16 to provide player tracking services. In anotherembodiment, instead of the small display 16, a portion of the largedisplay 34, may also be used to output player tracking information.

To start a player tracking session, as described above, the player mayinsert a player tracking card in the card reader 24, enter a PIN numberusing the key pad 22 and receive player tracking information via thesmall display 16. The second virtual player tracking ECI 614 uses thedisplay 34, the touch screen 35, the card reader 24, a finger printreader 39 and a light panel 44. To start a player tracking session, theplayer may insert a player tracking card in the card reader 24, providesfinger print information via the print reader 39 and receives playertracking information via the display 34. Using the touch screen 35, theplayer may be able to select choices from player tracking service menusand interfaces displayed on the display 34, enter a PIN or provide otheralphanumeric input. The light panel 44 may be used to convey to a playeroperational information. For example, the light panel may change coloror flash when a player has inserted their player tracking cardincorrectly in the gaming machine.

In one embodiment, one or more ECI processes described above areavailable to non-player tracking carded players. In one such embodiment,the gaming system provides one or more ECI processes to a non-cardedplayer and informs the player of the different ECI processes that wouldbecome available to the player if the player were to obtain a playertracking card. In one embodiment, the gaming system enables the playerto enroll in the player tracking system at the gaming machine.

In the present invention, one or more ECI processes and game playprocesses on the gaming machine may share the same gaming device. Forinstance, the card reader 24 may be used by the virtual ATM ECI 616, thefirst virtual player tracking peripheral 612 and the second virtualplayer tracking peripheral 614. As another example, the bill validator30 may be used by the virtual ATM peripheral 616 and by the mastergaming controller on the gaming machine.

Traditionally, gaming devices have not been shared by different softwareelements or processes executing on the gaming machine and the functionsof a particular gaming device have been fairly limited. For example,card readers on gaming machine are typically used only to read playertracking information from player tracking cards. Further, the cardreaders have been in player tracking units with a separate logic devicefrom the master gaming controller that provide control and have not beenaccessible to a master gaming controller on the gaming machine. Asanother example, the bill validator 30 is typically used only to insertcredits into the gaming machine. Thus, conflicts between differentgaming processes wishing to use a gaming device at the same time havenot generally had to be considered on gaming machines.

Since a given gaming device may be shared by multiple software entities,the context in which a given device is being used may be important. Forexample, a player tracking session may be usually initiated when aplayer inserts a player tracking card into the card reader 24. When acard is inserted into the card reader 24, one of the virtual playertracking peripherals (e.g., 612 or 614) may detect the insertion of thecard and initiate the player tracking session. When the virtual ATMperipheral 116 is active, the player may insert an ATM card into thecard reader 24 to begin ATM services (inserting the card may alsoactivate the ATM peripheral if it is not active). Thus, one possiblescenario using the card reader 24 is that the player has requested anATM service, the virtual ATM peripheral 116 may be given control of thecard reader 24 and the virtual ATM peripheral 116 is waiting for theplayer to insert an ATM card into the card reader 24. If the playermistakenly inserts a player tracking card into the card reader 24, thevirtual ATM peripheral 116 may generate an error because the playertracking card is not an ATM card. In another embodiment, the gamingsystem disclosed herein may enable credits to be downloaded from aplayer's account via a player tracking card (and utilizing a designatedpin specific to that player). When the virtual ATM peripheral 116 andthe virtual player tracking peripheral (112 or 114) may be operatingsimultaneously, logic on the gaming machine may be required to determinein the situation described above whether a player tracking session is tobe initiated or an error is to be generated.

In a particular embodiment, an ECI process executing on the gamingmachine may be limited to only outputting video and/or audio content.For instance, the ECI may be limited to outputting only video content ona portion of display 34 and audio content on speakers 12 and 14. Inanother example, the ECI may be limited to outputting only video contenton a portion of display 34.

Operating System

In general, when a gaming device is shared by two or more entities, suchas two or more ECI's or an ECI and another gaming process executed onthe gaming machine, and when situations occur where the two or moreentities may want to simultaneously use the same shared gaming device,shared gaming device logic may be required to arbitrate control of theshared gaming device. In traditional gaming machines, arbitratingcontrol of a shared gaming device is generally not an issue because mostgaming devices are usually either controlled by a single process or usedfor a single purpose. Control of the shared gaming device may bedetermined according to the context in which the device is being used.For instance, using the payment acceptor 28 in the context of enteringcredits to the gaming machine may be given priority over using the coinacceptor in the context to make change using the virtual change machine622 or to purchase items from the gaming machine using the virtualvending machine 628. Device scheduling and resource management aredescribed with respect to at least FIGS. 2 and 3A.

FIG. 3C is a block diagram illustrating further details relating to thehardware and software shown in FIG. 3B for one embodiment of the presentinvention. An exemplary software architecture including a number ofprocesses that may be executed by the operating system 213 are shown.The ECI w/virtual player tracking content 226 is a “process” executed byan operating system 213 residing on the gaming machine. In a particularembodiment, a protected “process” may be defined as a separate softwareexecution module that is protected by the operating system and executedby a logic device on the master gaming controller 224. When a process,including the ECI 226, is protected, other software processes orsoftware units executed by the master gaming controller can't access thememory of the protected process. A process may include one or moreprocess threads associated by the process.

The operating system 213 used to implement the gaming softwarearchitecture of the present invention may be one of a number ofcommercially available operating systems, such as QNX by QNX SoftwareSystems, LTD of Kanata, Ontario, Canada which is Unix-like, Windows NT,2000, XP, Vista by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. or Linux or aLinux variant, such as by Redhat, Durham, N.C., which is an open sourceUnix based operating system. Different operating systems may usedifferent definitions of processes. In QNX, the processes are protected.With other operating systems, a “process” may be dedicated logic that isexecuted. Using different operating systems, many differentimplementations of the present invention are possible and the presentinvention is not limited to the constraints of a particular operatingsystem.

A few details of the processes that may be executed on gaming machinesof the present invention are as follows. The NV-RAM manager 229 controlsaccess to the non-volatile memory on the gaming machine. By using theNV-RAM manager 229, the gaming processes may share the non-volatilememory resource at the same time. Thus, the non-volatile memory usage isoptimally used which may lower the costs associated with adding newfunctions to the gaming machine. In some embodiments, ECI processes maybe prevented from accessing non-volatile memory for security purposes inother embodiments the ECI processes may be enabled to send and receiveinformation stored in a non-volatile memory on the gaming machine.

Other processes that may be considered part of the operating systeminclude but are not limited to a communication manager 223, a partitionmanager 256, an event manager 263, a game manager 221, a power hitdetection process 228, a device scheduler 258 and an ECI process 226,which for illustrative purposes provides player tracking content. Theplayer tracking ECI process 226 in conjunction with logic executed on aremote host may be used to provide player tracking services using thecard reader 24, the key pad 22, the finger-print reader 39 and the lightpanel 44 as described with respect to FIG. 3B.

The device scheduler 258 may be used to arbitrate control and manage theusage of one or more shared devices on the gaming machine. A “shareddevice” may refer to a physical device on the gaming machine that may beused in different contexts for multiple purposes. For instance, thedisplay 34 may be used to output the results of a game of chancegenerated on the gaming machine via the game manager 221 and may be usedto output player tracking content from player tracking ECI 226. The gamemanager process 221 and the ECI 226 may at times use the display 34 atthe same time to control a varying portion of the display including acontrol of the entire display area. The device scheduler 258 may be usedto determine which process under what circumstances is given access tohow much of the display 34.

As described above with respect to FIG. 3C, the device scheduler 258process may arbitrate requests, in particular concurrent requests, touse a shared gaming device, such as the display 34, from the differentgaming processes executed by the gaming operating system or requestsfrom processes executed on a remote host and determine which entity isgiven access to the shared gaming device, based on priority settings.For example, processes related to the output of the game of chance maybe given a higher priority than ECI processes. Thus, when the gamemanager 221 needs control of the entire display 34, the ECI process 226may lose access to the display 34 or may not be given access to thedisplay in the first place.

In a particular embodiment, player inputs may affect access to a shareddevice. In one embodiment, an input switch or other type of inputmechanism may be provided on the gaming machine that enables an ECI tobe displayed or hidden. Thus, when a player actuates the switch, thegaming machine may allow or not allow the ECI to access the shareddisplay. The gaming machine may have a default position, such as toallow an ECI to be generated or not generated in response to a playerinput, which may be changed by an input received on the gaming machine.The gaming machine may return to the default position after certainevents, such as but not limited to the credits reaching zero on thegaming machine, a player tracking card being inserted/removed,determining that a player playing the gaming machine has changed orafter a time period has expired.

In some instance, the gaming machine may override the player's selectionnot to provide the ECI. For instance, when input has been provided thatindicates the player doesn't wish to see the ECI, the gaming machine mayallow an ECI to access particular resources, such as a display,intermittently, such as in response to certain events. Thus, briefly orfor some time period, the gaming machine may allow the ECI to generateits interface and then after the time period is expired, not allow theECI to generate its interface. For instance, after a cash out request,the gaming machine may allow an ECI that provides promotional creditsthat may keep the player playing to be displayed even though an inputhad previously been received at the gaming machine indicating that theplayer didn't wish to see an ECI.

The device scheduler 258 may also include logic for determining when toroute information received from a physical device 105 via thehardware/software interface 101 to a remote host. For example, after anECI process is launched and access is granted to a portion of touchscreen display, input from the touch screen corresponding to the portionof the display controlled by the ECI may need to be routed to a hostremote. Although, as previously noted with respect to at least FIGS.1A-1C, the ECI may also include information handling capabilities thatallow it to process and route information received from one of thephysical devices.

In FIG. 3C, raw data received from a device, such as the touch screen 35or card reader 24, may be posted as an event to the event manager 262via a device driver in 259 for the touch screen or card reader and adevice interface 255, such as a touch screen device interface 241 orcard reader interface 245. As an example, the device scheduler 258 maysee the event and determine that touch screen input has been receivedand post an event indicating that this information is to be copied andsent to a remote host. The communication manager 223 may see the eventposted by the device scheduler 256 and send the information to a remotehost using an appropriate communication protocol 211. For example, aremote host A may communicate using the host A protocol 203 while aremote host B may communicate using the host B protocol 205. The gamingdevices of the present invention may be operable to implement wirelessand wired protocols of both a proprietary nature (e.g., Netplex, whichis an IGT proprietary protocol) or non-proprietary nature (USB, Wi-fi,IEEE 1394-compatable, Ethernet as well as protocols approved by theGaming Standards Association-GSA, Fremont, Calif., such as SAS, G2S orS2S).

The device scheduler 262 may incorporate logic of varying degrees ofcomplexity to route information received from an input device to aremote host. For example, in one embodiment, after an ECI has beeninstantiated and its relation to one or more devices determined, thescheduler 262 may check to determine whether input has been receivedfrom the one or more devices of interest to the remote host. When inputis received from one or more devices of interest to the remote hostassociated with the ECI, such as the touch screen input described in thepreceding paragraph, the input may be routed to remote host.

After the remote host receives the input, it determines whether theinput is of interest and what response to make. For example, the remotehost may not control the portion of the display from which the input wasreceived and, thus, determine a response is not necessary. On the otherhand, as described with respect to at least FIGS. 1A to 1C, the remotehost may determine that the input is from an area on the displaycontrolled by the remote host via the ECI, then send new content to theECI to displayed on the gaming machine and/or additional instructions tothe ECI control what content it is to output (e.g., the content may havealready been downloaded to the gaming machine that is needed for outputin response to the touch screen input and the remote host may instructthe ECI to output it).

In addition to sending content and/or instructions to the ECI 226 inresponse to receiving input from a physical device, the remote host maysend instructions to the gaming machine that affect its operation. Theremote host may send an event that is routed via the event manager 262to one or more other processes. For example, the remote host may send aninstruction to add credits to the gaming machine, which may cause acredit meter to increment and a display of the credits to be adjusted.As previously described, with at least respect to FIG. 2, the gamingmachine may provide logic (not shown) for checking whether the remotehost is allowed to provide a particular event. For example, all remotehosts may not be allowed to increment credits on the gaming machine. Inanother embodiment, the remote host may send an event that triggers afeature in a game to be unlocked, which affects the output of the gameon the game interface. The game manager 221 may receive this informationvia the event manager 262 and event distribution.

As noted above, the device scheduler 258 or some other process executingon the gaming machine, may include more complex logic for determiningwhat information received from a physical device to route to the remotehost. For instance, for each device of interest to the remote host, thedevice scheduler 258 may have the capability to examine the inputinformation and determine whether it of interest to the remote host. Forexample, the device scheduler may be able to determine whether the touchscreen input is in the area controlled by the host and only route inputreceived from this area. In another example, the remote host may beproviding player tracking services but not ATM services, thus when aplayer tracking card is inserted into the card reader 24, the devicescheduler 258 may determine that it is a player tracking card and routeit to the remote host. When a credit card is inserted into the cardreader 24, the device scheduler 258 may determine, the card is creditcard and not route the information to the remote host.

In a particular embodiment, for each shared gaming device, a separatedevice scheduler process 258 may be used to arbitrate control of theshared gaming device, assess information received from the shared gamingdevice and direct the information to other processes and host devices.As another example, a device scheduler process 258 may be used toarbitrate control of multiple shared gaming devices. In general, agaming machine may include multiple device scheduler processes that eachmanage one or more shared gaming devices.

As described in more detail below, the device scheduler 258 may listento and respond to game events passed through the event manager 262 andevent distribution 225 and more specifically to events that are requestsfor any of its known contexts to enter or exit. A context may bedescribed as a situation defined in logic where a process may requestcontrol of a particular shared gaming device. A process, such as a viaone or more process threads, may generate contexts for more than sharedgaming device. For instance, the ECI process 226 in conjunction withprocesses with its associated host may generate contexts for the display34, the touch screen 35, the card reader 24 and the light panel 44. Thedisplay 34, the touch screen 35, the card reader 24 and the light panel44 may all be shared gaming devices. There are at least twocircumstances under which the shared device manager 115 may grantcontrol of the shared gaming device: 1) the current context is finishedusing the shared gaming device or 2) a higher priority context requiresaccess to the shared gaming device.

Event based requests are one method of controlling access to a sharedgaming device. Another method is arbitrated requests that are sentdirectly to a device scheduler 258 or a similar process. In embodimentsof the present invention, event based request, arbitrated request orcombinations thereof may be used.

The display 34 is one example of a gaming device that may also be ashared gaming device. Contexts that may request access to the displayscreen 34 include but are not limited to: a) a menu context thatdisplays machine menu for maintenance situations, b) a tilt context thatdisplays tilts including hand pays for tilt situations, c) a gamecontext that displays regular game play, bonus games and cash outs, d)an attract context that displays attract menus in attract situations,and e) a main menu context that displays a game selection menu and othergame service menus available on the gaming machine. The contexts for thedisplay 34 may be generated by various gaming processes active on thegaming machine. For instance, in one embodiment, game service menucontexts may be generated by one or more ECIs, such as the playertracking ECI process 226. As another example, the game manager process226 may generate the game context. Thus, the display 34 may be a devicethat may be shared multiple times. A practical limit may be applied tothe display 34 or any other shared gaming device to keep the resourcefrom being entirely exhausted.

The contexts described above for the display 34 may be prioritized. Inone embodiment, the priorities for the display may be prioritized indescending order from highest to lowest, as the machine menu context,the tilt context, the game context, bonus game context, ECI context, theattract context and the main menu context. When the display is dividedinto different areas all or a portion of the contexts listed above mayapply. For instance, the tilt context may apply for all areas. Thus,when the gaming machine enters a tilt state the tilt context may takeover the entire display including all areas in which the display hasbeen sub-divided. As another example, certain games or bonus games mayuse the entire screen at certain times and may be given priority over anECI context or attract context for the portion of the screen used by theECI context. In other embodiments, the game context and bonus gamecontext may use a dedicated portion of the display 34 and may notcompete with the ECI context for display resources.

In general, the priorities assigned to contexts for a shared gamingdevice are fixed. However, variable priorities may also be used for somecontexts of the shared gaming device. As an example, the priorities ofattract mode contexts generated by different ECIs may be increased ordecreased as a function of time to emphasize a particular game service.Thus, a priority for an attract mode context for a particular gameservice provided by a ECI may be increased at particular times such thatthe attract mode context is displayed more often than other attract modecontexts generated by other ECI processes during the time when itspriority is increased. For example, an attract mode context that enablesa patron to make a dinner reservation or an entertainment reservationmay be emphasized more by increasing its priority in the early afternoonor at other times when the patron may desire these services.

Returning to FIG. 3C, the gaming machine software 201 may comprisecommunication protocols 211, an event manager 262 and event distribution225, device interfaces 255, device drivers 259, the game manager 221which interfaces with gaming processes used to generate the game ofchance, game resources such as a power Hit Detection Manager 229, whichmonitors gaming power, the NV-RAM manager 229 and the communicationmanager 223, which may be used by other processes, the ECI's, such asECI 226, the device scheduler process 258 that arbitrates control of oneor more shared gaming devices and the resource partition manager 256,which monitors resource usage by different resource partitions asdescribed with respect to FIG. 3A.

The software modules comprising the gaming machine software 201 may beloaded into memory of the master gaming controller 46 (see at leastFIGS. 3A and 6) of the gaming machine at the time of initialization ofthe gaming machine. The game operating system (OS) may be used to loadand unload the gaming software modules from a mass storage device on thegaming machine into RAM for execution as processes on the gamingmachine. The gaming OS may also maintain a directory structure, monitorthe status of processes and schedule the processes for execution. Duringgame play on the gaming machine, the gaming OS may load and unloadprocesses from RAM in a dynamic manner. The gaming OS, associatedprocesses and related gaming data may be authenticated in verified onthe gaming machine. Details of the authentication method and apparatusthat may be used with the present invention are described in U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,643,086, 6,149,522, 6,620,047, 6,106,396, by Alcorn, et, al.,each of which is incorporated by reference and for all purposes. Detailsof software verification methods that may be used with the presentinvention are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,567, entitled, “Processverification,” filed Aug. 8, 2001, which is incorporated herein byreference and for all purposes.

The NV-RAM manager 229 may be a protected process on the gaming machineto maintain the integrity of the non-volatile memory space on the gamingmachine. All access to the non-volatile memory may be through the NV-RAMmanager 229 via a defined API. During execution of the gaming machinesoftware 100, the non-volatile manager 229 may receive access requestsvia the event manager 262 from other processes, including a resourcepartition manager 256, a game manager 221, an ECI process 226 and one ormore device interfaces 255 to store or retrieve data in the physicalnon-volatile memory space. Other software units that request to read,write or query blocks of memory in the non-volatile memory are referredto as clients.

The device interfaces 255, including a key pad 235, a display 237, acard reader 245, a coin acceptor 251, a bill validator 243 and a touchscreen 241, are software units that provide an interface between thedevice drivers and the gaming processes active on the gaming machine.The device interfaces 255 may receive commands from virtual gamingperipherals requesting an operation for one of the physical devices. Forexample, in one context, the player tracking ECI process 226 may send acommand to the display interface 237 requesting that a message of sometype be displayed on the display 34. The display interface 237 sends themessage to the device driver for the display 34. The device driver forthe display communicates the command and message to the display 34enabling the display 34 to display the message. When the display 34 maybe controlled by more than one gaming process (e.g., the game manager221 may use the display 34 to present the game of chance), the devicescheduler 258 or a similar process may assign a priority to the contextgenerated by the player tracking ECI process 226 and grant control ofthe display 34 to the context depending on whether the display 34 iscurrently in use. If the display 34 is in use, the device scheduler 258may determine whether the current context using the device should beswitched out for the context generated by the player tracking ECIprocess 226.

The device interfaces 255 also receive events from the physical devices.In general, events may be received by the device interfaces 255 bypolling or direct communication. The solid black arrows indicate eventpaths between the various software units. Using polling, the deviceinterfaces 255 regularly communicate with the physical devices 105 viathe device drivers 259 requesting whether an event has occurred or not.Typically, the device drivers 259 do not perform any high level eventhandling. For example, using polling, the card reader 245 deviceinterface may regularly send a message to the card reader physicaldevice 24 asking whether a card has been inserted into the card reader.

Using direct communication, an interrupt or signal indicating an eventhas occurred, may be sent to the device interfaces 255 via the devicedrivers 259 when the physical devices need to communicate information.For example, when a card is inserted into the card reader, the cardreader 24 may send a “card-in message” to the device interface for thecard reader 245 indicating a card has been inserted which may be postedto the event manager 262. The card-in message may be an event. Otherexamples of events which may be received from one of the physicaldevices 105 by a device interface, include 1) Main door/Drop door/Cashdoor openings and closings, 2) Bill insert message with the denominationof the bill, 3) Hopper tilt, 4) Bill jam, 5) Reel tilt, 6) Coin in andCoin out tilts, 7) Power loss, 8) Card insert, 9) Card removal, 10)Promotional card insert, 11) Promotional card removal, 12) Jackpot, 13)Abandoned card and 14) touch screen activated.

Typically, the event may be an encapsulated information packet of sometype posted by the device interface. The event has a “source” and one ormore “destinations.” Each event contains a standard header withadditional information attached to the header. The additionalinformation may be typically used in some manner at the destination forthe event.

As an example, the source of the card-in game event may be the cardreader 24. The destinations for the card-in game event may be a bankmanager (not shown), which manages credit transfers to the gamingmachine, the communication manager 223 and the player tracking ECI 226.The communication manager 223 may communicate information read from thecard to one or more devices located outside the gaming machine, such asa remote host. When the magnetic striped card is used to deposit creditsinto the gaming machine, the bank manager may prompt the card reader 24via the card reader device interface 255 to perform additionaloperations. When the magnetic striped card is used to initiate a playertracking session, the player tracking ECI 226 or a remote host mayprompt the card reader 24 via the card reader device interface 255 toperform additional operations related to player tracking. Since multiplecontexts may be applied to the card-in event, a device scheduler, suchas 258, may be used to determine which context is granted control of thegaming device. For example, the device scheduler 258 may grant controlof the card reader to either bank manager 222, the ECI 226 or the remotehost (not shown).

An event may be created when an input is detected by one of the deviceinterfaces 255. Events may also be created by one process and sent toanother process. For example, when the device scheduler 258 grantscontrol of one shared gaming device to a context, an event may begenerated. Further, as previously described, events may also begenerated from entities located outside the gaming machine. For example,a remote host may send an event to the gaming machine, via thecommunication manager 223. The events may be distributed to one or moredestinations via a queued delivery system using the event distributionsoftware process 225. However, since the game events may be distributedto more than one destination, or simply broadcast to the processesexecuting, the events differ from a device command or a device signalwhich is typically a point to point communication such as a functioncall within a program or inter-process communication between processes.

Since the source of the event, which may be a device interface or aremote host outside of the gaming machine, is not usually directlyconnected to destination of the event, the event manager 262 acts as aninterface between the source and the one or more event destinations.After the source posts the event, the source returns back to performingits intended function. For example, the source may be a device interfacepolling a hardware device. The event manager 262 processes the gameevent posted by the source and places the game event in one or morequeues for delivery. The event manager 262 may prioritize each event andplace it in a different queue depending on the priority assigned to theevent. For example, critical game events may be placed in a list with anumber of critical game transactions stored in the NV-RAM as part of astate in a state-based transaction system executed on the gamingmachine.

After the event manager receives an event, the event may be sent toevent distribution 225 in the gaming system 213. Event distribution 225broadcasts the event to the destination software units that may operateon the event. The operations on the events may trigger one or moreaccess requests to the NV-RAM via the NV-RAM manager 229. Further, whenone or more software units may request control of a shared gaming devicein response to the event, then a device scheduler, such as 258, may beused to arbitrate the request.

As another example of event processing, when a player enters a bill intothe gaming machine using the bill validator 30, this event may arrive atthe bank manager after the event has passed through the device drivers259, the bill validator device interface 240, the event manager 262, andthe event distribution 225 where information regarding the event such asthe bill denomination may be sent to the NV-RAM manager 229 by the eventmanager 262. After receiving the event, the bank manager evaluates theevent and determines whether a response is required to the event. Forexample, the bank manager 222 may decide to increment the amount ofcredits on the machine according to the bill denomination entered intothe bill validator 30. Further, the bank manager 222 may request controlof the bill validator. When the bill validator 30 is a shared gamingdevice, the device scheduler 258 may arbitrate the request to use thebill validator 30. Thus, one function of the bank manager software andother software units that are executed as processes on the gamingmachine may be as an event evaluator.

More generally, in response to the event, the bank manager or otherprocesses on the gaming machine may 1) generate a new event and post itto the event manager 262, 2) send a command to the device interfaces255, 3) send a command or information to the remote host via thecommunication manager using one of the communication protocols, 4) donothing or 5) perform combinations of 1), 2) and 3).

Non-volatile memory may be accessed via the NV-RAM manager 229 viacommands sent to the gaming machine from devices located outside of thegaming machine. For instance, an accounting server or a wide areaprogressive server may poll the non-volatile memory to obtaininformation on the cash flow of a particular gaming machine. The cashflow polling may be carried out via continual queries to thenon-volatile memory via game events sent to the event manager 262 andthen to the NV-RAM manager 229. The polling may require translation ofmessages from the accounting server or the wide area progressive serverusing communication protocol translators 211 residing on the gamingmachine.

The communication protocols typically translate information from onecommunication format to another communication format. For example, agaming machine may utilize one communication format while a remote hostproviding ECI services may utilize a second communication format. Thecommunication protocols 211 may translate the information from onecommunication format to another enabling information to be sent andreceived from the server.

The power hit detection process 229 monitors the gaming machine forpower fluctuations. The power hit detection process 229 may be stored ina memory different from the memory storing the rest of the gamingmachine software 103. When the power hit detection software 229 detectsthat a power failure of some type may be imminent, an event may be sentto the event manger 230 indicating a power failure has occurred. Thisevent may be posted to the event distribution software 225, whichbroadcasts the message to all of the processes and devices within thegaming machine that may be affected by a power failure. If time isavailable, the event may also be sent to processes executing on a remotehost.

Device interfaces 255 are utilized with the gaming machine software 213so that changes in the device driver software do not affect the gamingsystem software 213 or even the device interface software 255. Forexample, the gaming events and commands that each physical device 105sends and receives may be standardized so that all the physical devices105 send and receive the same commands and the same gaming events. Thus,when one of the physical devices 105 is replaced, a new device driver259 may be required to communicate with the physical device. However,device interfaces 255 and gaming machine system software 213 remainunchanged. When the new physical device requires a different amount ofNV-RAM from the old physical device, an advantage of the NV-RAM manager229 may be that the new space may be easily allocated in thenon-volatile memory without reinitializing the NV-RAM. Thus, thephysical devices 105 utilized for player tracking services may be easilyexchanged or upgraded with minimal software modifications.

The various software elements described herein (e.g., the devicedrivers, device interfaces, communication protocols, etc.) may beimplemented as software objects or other executable blocks of code orscript. In a preferred embodiment, the elements are implemented as C++objects. The event manager, event distribution, software player trackingunit and other gaming system 213 software may also by implemented as C++objects. Each are compiled as individual processes and communicate viaevents and/or interprocess communication (IPC). Event formats and IPCformats may be defined as part of one or more Application ProgramInterfaces (APIs) used on the gaming machine. This method ofimplementation is compatible with the QNX operating system.

The operating system and its components have been described in thecontext of a gaming machine. A master gaming controller 46 on the gamingmachine may include the operating system (see at least FIG. 6). Thepresent invention is not so limited. Gaming processes may also beactivated by operating systems executed by logic devices different fromthe master gaming controller on the gaming machine. For instance, agaming peripheral, such as a player tracking unit, mounted to a gamingmachine may include a logic device that executes an operating system.The operating system on the gaming peripheral may be the same ordifferent from the operating system executing on the master gamingcontroller on the gaming machine.

The gaming peripheral may comprise one or more gaming devices. Like thegaming machine activating a process that controls gaming devices locatedon the gaming peripheral, the logic device on the gaming peripheral mayactivate processes that control gaming devices located on the gamingperipheral and the gaming machine. Further, like the gaming machine, thegaming machine may execute ECI processes under control of a remote host.In another embodiment, the gaming peripheral may act as a remote host toan ECI process executed on the gaming machine. For instance, a playertracking unit coupled to the gaming machine may act as the remote hostfor the player tracking ECI process 226 executed on the gaming machine.In yet another embodiment, the gaming machine may act as a remote hostto an ECI process executing on another gaming device, such as anothergaming machine.

Remote Host—Gaming Machine Interaction

FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram 400 between a host and gaming machinefor one embodiment of the present invention. The gaming machine may beoperable to provide access to resources that may be controlled by theremote host as part of an ECI described above with at least respect toFIGS. 1A to 3C. In 430, the gaming machines powers up and becomesavailable for game play. At some time, the gaming machine may establisha relationship with a remote host. For example, in one embodiment, aspart of an initialization phase on the gaming machine, a communicationlink may be established between gaming machine and the remote host. Whena communication link is established between the gaming machine and theremote, the gaming machine and remote host may exchangeauthentication/validation messages 412 that enable both the gamingmachine and the remote host to determine that the communications arefrom a valid source. This process may utilize methods known in the art,such as exchanging information encrypted or signed with public andprivate key pairs.

After a communication link is established between the remote host andthe gaming machine, information may be exchanged between the devicesthat may be used to determine when to trigger an instantiation of an ECIon the gaming machine. In different embodiments, information requestsmay be initiated by remote host in 402 or may be initiated by the gamingmachine. The information requests may be event driven, may occur atregular intervals as a result of polling messages initiated at the hostor the gaming machine, may occur according to an agreed upon schedule orcombinations thereof.

Different types of information needed to determine when to instantiatean ECI may be communicated. For instance, in 404, the gaming machine maysend status information regarding its current status, such as idle oractive, to the remote host. As another example, in 406 the gamingmachine may send player and/or usage information, such as coin-in andcoin-out, to the remote host. In yet another example, the eventinformation, such as a request for a game service on the gaming machine,may be sent to the remote host that triggers a launch of the ECI.

In particular embodiment, the remote host may receive useful informationindirectly. For example, a player tracking session may be initiated onthe gaming machine that causes a communication link to be establishedbetween the gaming machine and a player tracking server. In response,the gaming machine may send information indicating that a playertracking session has been initiated. In response, the remote host maycontact the player tracking server and in 450 receive information fromthe player tracking server, which is an example of remote gaming device.In another embodiment, after a communication link may be establishedwith the gaming machine, the player tracking server may automaticallycontact the remote host and send information to the remote host in 450.

The information received from the player tracking server may be used todetermine whether to launch an ECI on the gaming machine. Further, whenthe ECI is launched, the information received from the player trackingserver and/or the gaming machine may be used to customize the contentoutput by the ECI on the gaming machine. For example, the content may becustomized according to known player preferences. In another example,the content may be customized according to a status of the player, whichmay be determined from their game play history. Further, the playertracking server may send or the remote host may store operatorpreferences regarding content or promotions that the operator wants tooutput via the ECI. The operator preferences may also be used tocustomize the ECI on the gaming machine.

In another embodiment, the gaming machine may send information toservers in which it does not have an established formal communicationrelationship. For example, when the gaming machine is idle, the gamingmachine may broadcast its status to one or more remote hosts on a localarea network. In response to the broadcast, one or more remote hosts maydetermine that they wish to output content on the gaming machine duringthe idle period and contact the gaming machine. In 402, the remote hostsmay contact the gaming machines to request additional information, whichmay be publicly available to devices on the network or in 410, theremote host may initiate a resource request 410 for control of resourceson the gaming machine. Prior to exchanging information regardingparameters of the resource request, such as a status of resources thatmay be available for control by the remote host in 414, the gamingmachine and remote host may exchange information used by each device forauthentication and validation purposes. Further details of interactionsbetween the remote host and the gaming machine are described in thefigure for one embodiment of the present invention.

In 454, the remote host may evaluate the resource limitations providedby the gaming machine and determine whether it can provide content thatis suitable for the resource limitations available on the gamingmachine. When the remote host determines the resource limitations areacceptable, in 416, it may send a message indicating it wishes toinitiate a session between the remote host and the gaming machine.

In 418, after receiving this message, the remote host and the gamingmachine may exchange one or more session parameter messages includinginformation such as a time stamp, clock information so that their clocksmay be synchronized, device identification etc. In one embodiment, theinformation in the one or more session parameter messages may beutilized to identify state information stored on the remote hostpertaining to the session between the remote host and the gaming machinein a manner that allows the state of the gaming machine and the state ofan ECI generally corresponding to the state of gaming at a particulartime or during a particular event to be determined.

After a session between the gaming machine and the host is initiated, in434, the gaming machine load and execute an ECI process if it is notalready executing and begin communication gaming machine transactioninformation to the remote host. The gaming machine transactioninformation may include information regarding a state of a game playedon the game, player identification information, money handlinginformation, etc. The gaming machine transaction information receivedfrom the gaming machine may affect dynamically the content the remotehost sends to the gaming machine. Examples of gaming transactioninformation that may be transmitted are described in the G2S protocolapproved by the Gaming Standards Association (Fremont, Calif.) althoughthe present invention is not limited to the communicating theinformation described in the protocol or in the format described by theprotocol.

In particular embodiments, the remote host may be simultaneously insessions with a plurality of gaming machines where each gaming machineis receiving content that is being dynamically adjusted by the remotehost based on information received from the gaming machines, i.e., thecontent is customized for the particular game state of each gamingmachine. Further, the remote host may be operable to customize contentbased upon a “group” state. In a group state, information received froma group of gaming machine may be combined to define a state of thegroup. The remote host may be operable to dynamically adjust contentsent to one or more gaming machines in a group based upon a group state.Thus, at a particular time, the content sent from the remote host to thegaming machine may be 1) affected by the state of the gaming machine, 2)unaffected by the state of the gaming machine, 3) affected by the stateof a group of gaming machine, 4) unaffected by the state of the group ofgaming machines, 5) affected by the state of another gaming machine(e.g., in a tournament situation, the remote host may adjust its contentto reflect that another gaming machine different the gaming machine haswon the tournament or another gaming machine has won a particularjackpot), 6) unaffected by the state of another gaming machine, or 7)combinations thereof.

In the preceding paragraph, a gaming machine to which the remote host issending content may or may not provide information that affects aparticular group state at a given time. For example, the remote host oranother host may provide a progressive game with a progressive jackpotto a group of gaming machines. The gaming machine to which the remotehost is sending content may be operable to play the progressive game butmay not be currently participating in the progressive game at aparticular time and thus not contributing to the jackpot, which in thisexample is one indicator of the group state of the gaming machine in thegroup. When the progressive jackpot reaches a certain level, the remotehost may send information to the gaming machine to indicate that thejackpot has reached a certain threshold to entice a player on the gamingmachine to join the progressive game. Thus, the remote host maydynamically adjust content sent to the gaming machine based upon a groupstate for a group of gaming machines that the gaming machine iscurrently not affecting.

In 456, the remote host may select its initial content to send to thegaming machine, including commands, instructions and/or data that arealready stored on the remote to the gaming machine in 420. If needed,the remote host may generate all or a portion of the content to send tothe gaming machine in real time. In a particular embodiment, the gamingmachine may store content from previous interactions with the remotehost or other remote hosts that were used by an ECI. In this case, thegaming machine may be operable to gather information on content storedon the gaming machine and send it to the remote host. The gaming machineor the remote host may initiate this interaction. If the gaming machineis storing content that is useful to the remote host, such as content itmay need to send to the gaming machine in the absence of its presence onthe gaming machine, the remote host may be operable to send only neededcontent without reduplicating content the content it may use that isalready stored on the gaming machine

In 458, the remote host may store information regarding the state it iscontrolling on the ECI, which may be affected by the content it issending. In 436, the gaming machine may store and/or output content viathe ECI. In 438, the gaming machine may receive input from a peripheraldevice, such as a touch screen sensor or generate information that mayaffect the content provided by the remote host. In 440, the gamingmachine may determine that this information is of interest to the remotehost and/or to the ECI. In one embodiment, the information may be routedto the ECI for additional processing, which may then send theinformation to the remote host or in 422, the gaming machine send theinformation directly to remote host.

In 460, the remote host may process the information received from thegaming machine and send new content including commands, instructionsand/or data to the gaming machine in 424. In 442, the gaming machine maystore and/or output the new content via the ECI. In 462, the remote hostdetermines that an event has been triggered, which may be related to thecontent it has sent in 424. For example, the event may be the award of a2 times bonus and the content it sent in 424 may be a presentation forthis award. Thus, in 426, event information may be sent to the gamingmachine, such as instructions, to the master gaming controller to doublean award for the current game and update the credit meter accordingly.

In 444, in response to the event information, the gaming machine maymodify the gaming machine interface. For example, in the case of the 2times bonus award described in the previous paragraph, the gamingmachine may present a credit meter scrolling up in response to theaward.

In 448, the gaming machine may determine that an event has occurred thatmay affect a status of the session. For instance, the gaming machine mayhave received a cash out command, a player may withdraw a playertracking card, the gaming machine may have reached zero credits, thegaming machine may have been idle for a period, the gaming machine hasreceived a request for resources from another remote host wishing toprovide an ECI, the gaming machine has received an input signalindicating a desire to close a window associate with the ECI provided bythe remote, a malfunction has occurred on the gaming machine, a tiltcondition has occurred on the gaming machine, the resources available onthe gaming machine have changed.

In response to the particular event, in 428, the gaming machine mayrenegotiate or terminate the session. For example, when the gamingmachine has been idle for a period, the gaming machine may terminate thecurrent session with the host or the gaming machine may renegotiate thesession parameters, such as to provide an attract feature on an ECIassociated with the remote host. In 449 and 466, the gaming machine andthe remote host may each respectively store state information, such asinformation indicating the session was terminated or was renegotiated.

The interaction diagram was provided for illustrative purposes only andthe present invention is not to be limited by the types of interactionsor order of interactions described in FIG. 4. Accordingly, it should beappreciated that in one embodiment, the present disclosure provides agaming device including a primary game operable upon a wager by aplayer, at least one display device, at least one input device, and atleast one local processor. The master gaming machine controller may beprogrammed to operate a remote host to enable the player to wager on aplay of the primary game, generate or receive a primary game outcome forthe play of the primary game, cause part of the display device todisplay the play of the primary game, and receive at least one requestfrom the remote host to provide at least one remote controlled processon the display device. If at least one request to provide the remotecontrolled process is received, the local processor may be programmed todetermine an availability of at least one gaming device resource. If thegaming device resource is available, the local processor may beprogrammed to accept the request to provide the remote controlledprocess; and enable the remote host to cause a portion of the displaydevice to display the remote controlled process, wherein the remotecontrolled process will not affect the integrity of the play of theprimary game and the remote controlled process may be displayedsimultaneously with the play of the primary game and generatedconcurrently by the master gaming controller on the gaming machine. Ifthe gaming device resource is not available, the local processor may beprogrammed to reject the request to provide the remote controlledprocess. It should be appreciated that maintaining the integrity of theplay of the primary game includes, but is not limited to: ensuring thatthe game play speed of the primary game remains the same orsubstantially the same, ensuring that the quality of graphics of theprimary game remains the same or substantially the same, ensuring thatthe quality of the audio of the primary game remains the same orsubstantially the same, ensuring that no corrupt images are displayed inassociation with the play of the primary game, ensuring that the correctoutcomes are provided to the player in association with the play of theprimary game, and/or ensuring that the functionality of the primary gameremains the same or substantially the same.

In one such embodiment, if the externally controlled process isauthorized by the master gaming controller, then the externallycontrolled process may provide (a) one or more services to the player;(b) one or more enhanced functions or features of the gaming machine tothe player; (c) one or more outcomes to a player; or (d) a combinationof such services, functions and outcomes to a player, wherein theexternally controlled process is based, at least in part, on one or moreaspects of the locally controlled games. In other embodiments, if theexternally controlled process is authorized by the master gamingcontroller, then independent of the locally controlled games, theexternally controlled process may provide (a) one or more services tothe player; (b) one or more enhanced functions or features of the gamingmachine to the player; (c) one or more outcomes to a player; or (d) acombination of such services, functions and outcomes to a player.

In one embodiment, the services provided to the player via theexternally controlled process may include, but are not limited to one ormore of the following:

-   -   (1) enabling a player to order food, drinks or coffee from the        gaming machine (possibly to be delivered to the player at the        gaming machine);    -   (2) enabling a player at a gaming machine to communicate with a        person at another gaming machine;    -   (3) enabling a person at a gaming machine to communicate with a        gaming establishment concierge,    -   (4) enabling a player to learn information about various hotels,        gaming establishments, restaurants, entertainment and/or travel        services;    -   (5) enabling a player to make reservations, such as at a        restaurant or for an event, from the gaming machine;    -   (6) enabling a player to transfer funds or manage a monetary        account from the gaming machine;    -   (7) enabling a player to purchase a lottery ticket at the gaming        machine;    -   (8) enabling a player to obtain change at a gaming machine;    -   (9) enabling a player to make a wager on an event or other        unknown outcome, such as a sporting event, to monitor events, to        receive results and to cash out a winning event ticket at the        gaming machine;    -   (10) enabling a player to send and receive electronic messages,        such as e-mails, at the gaming machine;    -   (11) enabling a player to purchase various vending items at the        gaming machine;    -   (12) enabling a player to access internet enabled services;    -   (13) enabling a player to check and redeem player tracking        points for merchandise, entertainment or services;    -   (14) enabling a player to receive information related to        upcoming tournaments or other gaming establishment promotions;    -   (15) enabling a player to watch television or a movie at the        gaming machine;    -   (16) enabling a player to listen to music at the gaming machine;    -   (17) enabling a player to access the player's gaming        establishment account; and    -   (18) enabling a player to view promotions available to that        player.

In one embodiment, the enhanced functions or features of the gamingmachine provided to the player via the externally controlled processinclude, but are not limited to one or more of the following:

-   -   (1) displaying information relating to one or more aspects of        the player's gaming experience;    -   (2) providing personalized audio and/or video content at the        gaming machine;    -   (3) enabling a player to pick a game to play from a plurality of        available games;    -   (4) enabling a player to place one or more side-bets;    -   (5) enabling a player to play for one or more progressive        awards;    -   (6) enabling a player to participate in a gaming tournament;    -   (7) providing a virtual ATM at the gaming machine;    -   (8) providing a virtual entertainment center at the gaming        machine;    -   (9) providing a virtual lottery machine at the gaming machine;    -   (10) providing a virtual change machine at the gaming machine;    -   (11) providing a virtual sports book at the gaming machine;    -   (12) providing a virtual communication center at the gaming        machine;    -   (13) providing a virtual concierge at the gaming machine;    -   (14) providing a virtual vending machine at the gaming machine;    -   (15) providing a virtual internet kiosk at the gaming machine;    -   (16) enabling a player to customize one or more aspects of the        content displayed on the display device;    -   (17) enabling a player to customize one or more aspects of        gaming machine interface;    -   (18) enabling a player to enroll in a player tracking system;    -   (19) enabling a player to play a plurality of games        simultaneously or substantially simultaneously at the gaming        machine;    -   (20) enabling a player to access personal settings at the gaming        machine;    -   (21) enabling a player to access a score card of accomplished        events (such as which poker game outcomes has the player        obtained and which poker game outcomes has the player not yet        obtained);    -   (22) enabling a player to access a tournament leader board; and    -   (23) enabling a player to select a favorite type of award to        play for.

In one embodiment, the outcomes provided to the player via theexternally controlled process may include, but are not limited to one ormore of the following:

-   -   (1) a value;    -   (2) a modifier;    -   (3) an entry in an award drawing;    -   (4) an entry in a tournament;    -   (5) an additional player tracking point;    -   (6) a session surprise award;    -   (7) a modifier of any primary game awards for a set amount of        time;    -   (8) a number of free or discounted spins or activations of a        game;    -   (9) a prize;    -   (10) a progressive award;    -   (11) a retrigger to be utilized in a game;    -   (12) a wild symbol to be utilized in a game;    -   (13) an anti-terminator to be utilized in a game;    -   (14) a bonus or secondary game;    -   (15) a nudge of one or more reels in a reel game;    -   (16) a hold of one or more reels in a reel game;    -   (17) a scatter type pay;    -   (18) one or more additional paylines in a reel game;    -   (19) one or more additional ways to win in a reel game;    -   (20) one or more additional ways to trigger a secondary game;    -   (21) one or more available promotions;    -   (22) one or more surveys; and    -   (23) one or more non-redeemable credits.

ECI Features

FIGS. 5A and 5B are block diagrams illustrating features of anexternally controlled interface (ECI) on a gaming machine forembodiments of the present invention. In FIG. 5A, a game interface 503comprising a portion of the touch screen display 34, speakers 12 and 14,service button 518, mechanical input buttons 520, payment or coinacceptor 28 and bill validator 30 are illustrated. The game interface503 enables wagers to be made on a game of chance on the gaming machine500. The game interface portion of the display 503 comprises amulti-line payline slot game during one state of the game, paylineindicators 528 on the left and right of the slot game, game information526 and game touch screen input buttons. The game interface 503 may bescaled to use a portion of the display 34. In general, the gameinterface 503 may be scaled to use many different sized portions of thedisplay in different locations of the display. Further the gamingmachine is not limited to a single gaming interface and the display maybe divided into multiple portions to enable a plurality of games to beplayed simultaneously.

An ECI 502 also utilizes a portion of the display 502. In oneembodiment, when the master gaming controller receives an input signalindicating the service button 518 has been depressed, the ECI 502 may beactivated. Prior to activation of the ECI 502, the game interface 503may occupy the entire display 34. In the example in the FIG. 5A, the ECI502 utilizes a portion of the touch screen display 502 and the speakers12 and 14. In different embodiments, the ECI transitions to utilize aportion of the display via a sliding window transition, via a swappingof windows transition, via an overlay of windows transition, via ascaling of windows transition, via one or more hidden windows or via anysuitable transition. In other embodiments, the game interface 503 mayutilize other devices coupled to the gaming machine including but notlimited to the bill validator 30, card reader 24, payment acceptor 28,mechanical input buttons 520 and service button.

The ECI 502 comprises a number of components. Player information 504including a player's name and loyalty program account informationincluding points in a loyalty program may be output to display 34. Theplayer information and the loyalty account information may be obtainedafter a player inserts a player tracking card in the card reader 24. Byactivating the touch screen proximate to the oval in which the clubpoints are displayed, the player may access additional loyalty programaccount information or additional menus relating to player tracking.After the touch screen proximate to the oval has been activated, theformat of the ECI 502 on display 34 may change to enable the additionalinformation to be output or the information may be output via analternate means, such as via the speakers 12 or 14 or another display onthe gaming machine.

In one embodiment, the remote host controlling ECI 502 may act as aplayer tracking server and have the player loyalty account informationlocally available. In another embodiment, the remote host 502 maycontact another gaming device to obtain any needed loyalty accountinformation associated with a player. In the case where the player isnot a member of the loyalty program, the ECI 502 may output informationasking the player to join and providing instructions regarding how tojoin.

Another component of the ECI 502 may be bonus drawing information 508.As a result of their game play, the player may earn entries in a bonusdrawing. A portion of the ECI display outputs bonus drawing information508. By pressing the touch screen proximate to the oval displaying thebonus drawing information, the player may learn additional information,such as their number of drawing entries, a list of the numbersassociated with each bonus drawing ticket and/or when the next bonusdrawing is going to occur.

In one such embodiment, the remote host provides players with one ormore entries into a bonus award drawing based on a player's gamingactivity. The remote host tracks one or more aspects of the player'sgaming activity and based on such tracked gaming activity, the remotehost provides the player one or more entries into a bonus drawing forone or more awards or prizes. In different embodiments, the number ofentries provided to each player may be predetermined, randomlydetermined, determined based on the player's status (such as determinedthrough a player tracking system), determined based on a generatedsymbol or symbol combination, determined based on a random determinationby the remote host, determined based on a random determination at thegaming machine, determined based on one or more side wagers placed,determined based on the player's primary game wager, determined based ontime (such as the time of day) or determined based on any other suitablemethod or criteria. In one embodiment, at a designated time or upon adesignated event occurring, the remote host (or other suitable system)randomly selects one or more of the drawing entries and provides theplayer's associated with such selected drawing entries the appropriateawards. For example, the remote host provides a player with an entryinto a bonus award drawing for each cherry symbols generated in thegame. In another embodiment, the remote host provides players with oneor more entries into a bonus award drawing based on one or more eventsindependent from the player's gaming activity. For example, the remotehost provides a player with an entry into a bonus award drawing forevery $10 wagered.

Yet another component of the ECI 502 may be advertising 512 and attractfeatures. Based upon information known about a player, the advertisingand attract features may be personalized to an individual playerpreferences. In FIG. 5A, advertising for a show is presented. When ECItouch screen buttons 510 are activated, additional information about theshow may be presented, such as a movie clip, show times and seatavailability. When the movie is presented, ECI touch screen buttons 510,enable the progress of the movie to be controlled and to be played withor without sound. In one embodiment, the ECI 502 may enable the playerto make reservations for the show and print tickets for the show orprint a receipt that enables a player to pick up tickets for the show.

Other components of the ECI 502 are menu buttons 514 for additionalservices. An activation of the touch screen proximate to the oval foreach of the menu buttons 514 causes the ECI 502 to display additionalinformation regarding services, beverages or communications with a hostthat may be obtained on the gaming machine. In response to theactivation of one of the menu buttons 514, the ECI 502 may displayadditional menus and information, which is described in more detail withrespect to at least FIG. 5B.

Finally, a last component of the ECI 502 for this example may be a bonusstatus information 516. During game play, the player may progresstowards an additional bonus award. The progression may depend onfactors, such as but not limited to a wager amount, how many games theyinitiate and events that are randomly triggered during their game play.The bonus status information 516 may be a meter that displays theirprogress to the additional award.

In one embodiment of the ECI being utilized to provide an additionalbonus award, the gaming system disclosed herein provides players withone or more bonus awards based on a player's gaming activity during asingle gaming session. In one embodiment, a single gaming session may bemeasured by a player carding-in and carding-out through a playertracking system. In one embodiment, a gaming session award may betriggered based on one or more game play events, such as a symbol-driventrigger, which occurs during the single gaming session. In otherembodiments, a gaming session award triggering event or qualifyingcondition may be triggered by exceeding a certain amount of game play(such as number of games, number of credits, or amount of time), orreaching a specified number of points earned during game play of thesingle gaming session. In another embodiment, a gaming device may berandomly or apparently randomly selected to provide a player of thatgaming device one or more gaming session awards during a single gamingsession. In one such embodiment, the gaming device does not provide anyapparent reasons to the player for winning a gaming session award,wherein winning the gaming session award may not be t triggered by anevent in or based specifically on any of the plays of any primary gameduring the single gaming session. That is, a player may be provided agaming session award without any explanation or alternatively withsimple explanations. In another embodiment, a player may be provided agaming session award at least partially based on a game triggered orsymbol triggered event during the single gaming session, such as atleast partially based on the play of a primary game.

In one such embodiment, as indicated in block 1002 of FIG. 8, upon aplayer inserting a player tracking card, the remote host may initiate agaming session at the player's currently played gaming device. Upon theinitiation of the gaming session, as indicated in block 1004, the remotehost may track one or more aspects of the player's gaming activity forthe currently played gaming session. In different embodiments, theremote host may track the amount of coin-in, any player tracking pointsaccumulated, the number of games played, the number and types ofoutcomes obtained, the currency inserted into the gaming device, theamount of time since the session began, the amount of time between thegeneration of certain outcomes, and/or any other suitable gamingactivity. It should be appreciated that in these embodiments, the gamingsystem may integrate certain aspects of the player's currently playedgaming session to the ECI in a direct, positive feedback loop. That is,as a player continues playing one or more games, the amount of coin-inwagered and the number of player tracking points accumulated may becommunicated from the gaming device to the remote host, wherein theremote host integrates this communicated data as part of the contentutilized by the ECI.

In one embodiment, the remote host may tracks the same aspect of gamingactivity for each gaming session. For example, the remote host may trackthe number of games played by each player in each gaming session. Inanother embodiment, the remote host may track different aspects ofgaming activity for different gaming sessions. For example, the remotehost may track the number of games played by each player in a firstgaming session and may track each player's coin-in in a second gamingsession. In different embodiments, which aspect of gaming activity theremote host will track may be predetermined, randomly determined,determined based on the player's status (such as determined through aplayer tracking system), determined based on a generated symbol orsymbol combination, determined based on a random determination by theremote host, determined based on a random determination at the gamingmachine, determined based on one or more side wagers placed, determinedbased on the player's primary game wager, determined based on time (suchas the time of day) or determined based on any other suitable method orcriteria.

In one embodiment, the remote host may track the same aspect of gamingactivity for each player. In another embodiment, the remote host maytrack different aspects of gaming activity for different players. Forexample, the remote host may track the number of games a first playerplays in a first gaming session, but may track a second player's coin-infor the first gaming session. In different embodiments, which aspect ofgaming activity the remote host will track for different players ispredetermined, randomly determined, determined based on the player'sstatus (such as determined through a player tracking system), determinedbased on a generated symbol or symbol combination, determined based on arandom determination by the remote host, determined based on a randomdetermination at the gaming machine, determined based on one or moreside wagers placed, determined based on the player's primary game wager,determined based on time (such as the time of day) or determined basedon any other suitable method or criteria.

In one embodiment, each players gaming activity may be uniformly trackedby the remote host. For example, a first player's wager of $1.00 countstoward the gaming session threshold the same as a second player's wagerof $1.00. In another embodiment, different players gaming activity maybe tracked differently. For example, a first player's wager of $1.00 maycount more toward the gaming session threshold than a second player'swager of $1.00. In different embodiment, each player's gaming activitymay be tracked based on the player's status (such as determined througha player tracking system), based on a generated symbol or symbolcombination in the underlying game, based on a random determination bythe remote host, based on a random determination at the gaming machine,based on one or more side wagers placed, based on the player's primarygame wager, based on time (such as the time of day) or based on anyother suitable method or criteria.

In one embodiment, as indicated in diamond 1006 of FIG. 8, the remotehost may determine if the player's tracked gaming activity reaches orexceeds a designated threshold of gaming activity. In one embodiment,the designated threshold of gaming active may be the same for eachgaming session. In another embodiment, the designated threshold ofgaming activity may be different for each gaming session. In differentembodiments, the designated threshold of gaming activity for each gamingsession is predetermined, randomly determined, determined based on theplayer's status (such as determined through a player tracking system),determined based on a generated symbol or symbol combination, determinedbased on a random determination by the remote host, determined based ona random determination at the gaming machine, determined based on one ormore side wagers placed, determined based on the player's primary gamewager, determined based on time (such as the time of day) or determinedbased on any other suitable method or criteria.

If the player's gaming activity does not reach or exceed the designatedthreshold of gaming activity, the remote host may continue tracking theplayer's gaming activity and may return to block 1004. If the player'sgaming activity reaches or exceeds the designated threshold of gamingactivity for the currently played gaming session, as indicated in blocks1008 and 1010 of FIG. 8, the remote host may generate a bonus awardamount or event and may instruct the local gaming device processor toprovide the player the generated bonus award or event. For example, if aplayer's coin-in during a single gaming session is at least equal to adesignated threshold coin-in level, a remote host may generate a bonusaward amount and may instruct the gaming device to provide the playerthe generated bonus award. In another embodiment, upon the player'stracked gaming activity reaching or exceeding a designated threshold ofgaming activity for the currently played gaming session, the remote hostmay generate a plurality of bonus awards and may instruct the gamingdevice to provide the player the generated bonus awards. It should beappreciated that the gaming session bonus award may be any suitableaward, including, but not limited to: a value, a modifier, a modifier ofany primary game awards for a set amount of time, a number of free ordiscounted spins or activations of a game, a bonus or secondary game, aprize, a progressive award, a number of bonus award drawing tickets, aservice or comp, a number of player account points, a temporary changein the player's account status, a number of redeemable prize points, anumber of rounds in a tournament, and an entry into a group play bonusevent.

In another embodiment, different features on the gaming device(accessible via the ECI) may become available to the player upon theplayer's gaming activity reaching or exceeding the designated thresholdof gaming activity. For example, if the player's gaming activity reachesor exceeds a designated threshold of gaming activity, the gaming devicemay enable the player to listen to a favorite song or genre of songswhile playing the gaming device. In another embodiment, differentservices available to the player (and accessible via the ECI) may beactivated upon the player's gaming activity reaching or exceeding adesignated threshold of gaming activity. For example, if a player'sgaming activity reaches or exceeds a designated threshold of gamingactivity, the player may be offered a free drink. In one embodiment ofthis example, the gaming system may alert a gaming establishmentattendant to ask the player if they would like a free drink. In anotherembodiment of this example, the gaming system may activate a drink-orderbutton on the player's gaming device. As mentioned above, this activateddrink-order button may either access a live dispatcher or may summon agaming establishment attendant.

In one embodiment, as seen in FIG. 5A, the player's currently playedgaming device displays information to the player 516 regarding theirtracking gaming activity and the designated threshold. In oneembodiment, the gaming device may display to the player the amount ofthe player's tracked gaming activity, such as via one or more meters,but does not display information regarding the designated gamingactivity threshold. In another embodiment, the gaming device may displayto the player information regarding the designated gaming activitythreshold, but does not display information about the amount of theplayer's tracked gaming activity.

In one embodiment, the gaming session bonus award may be the same foreach of the players. In another embodiment, the gaming session bonusaward may be different for different players. In one such embodiment,different players may play for different gaming session bonus awardsbased on each player's status (such as determined through a playertracking system). For example, the gaming session bonus award for abronze level player may be the first level progressive award of an MLP,while the gaming session bonus award for a silver level player may bethe second level progressive award of the MLP and the gaming sessionbonus award for a gold level player may be the third level progressiveaward of the MLP. In different embodiments, the gaming session bonusaward each player may play for is predetermined, randomly determined,determined based on a generated symbol or symbol combination, determinedbased on a random determination by the remote host, determined based ona random determination at the gaming machine, determined based on one ormore side wagers placed, determined based on the player's primary gamewager, determined based on time (such as the time of day) or determinedbased on any other suitable method or criteria.

In one embodiment, upon a determination to provide a player a bonusaward for a gaming session, the remote host may select a player toprovide an accumulated value progressive award. In another embodiment,upon the player's tracked gaming activity reaching or exceeding adesignated threshold of gaming activity, the remote host may randomlyselect a bonus award from a prize pool and may instruct the gamingdevice to provide the player the selected bonus award. In one suchembodiment, upon a determination to provide a player a bonus award for agaming session, the remote host may select a bonus award from a prizepool that is based on the player's status (such as determined through aplayer tracking system). For example, a gaming session bonus award for abronze player may be selected from a first prize pool, a gaming sessionbonus award for a silver player may be selected from a second, differentprize pool and a gaming session bonus award for a gold player may beselected from a third, different prize pool. In different embodiments,upon a determination to provide a player a bonus award for a gamingsession, the remote host may select a bonus award from a prize pool thatis based on a generated symbol or symbol combination, based on a randomdetermination by the remote host, based on a random determination at thegaming machine, based on one or more side wagers placed, based on theplayer's primary game wager, based on time (such as the time of day) orbased on any other suitable method or criteria.

In one such embodiment a promotional prize pool may include a pluralityof inventoried items (which may include null items) and thus the prizepool is associated with a fixed cost. In this embodiment, the remotehost may randomly select prizes from the pool and removes the prizes asthey are provided to the players, wherein when the last prize is removedfrom the promotional prize pool, the promotion ends. It should beappreciated that in this embodiment, as more prizes are selected andremoved from the prize pool, the probabilities of being selectedassociated with the remaining prizes change. In another embodiment, eachbonus award is associated with a probability and the remote hostrandomly selects a bonus award based on these probabilities.

In another embodiment, upon the player's tracked gaming activityreaching or exceeding a designated threshold of gaming activity, theremote host may randomly determine, based on one or more probabilities,whether to provide the player a bonus award for the player's gamingsession. In this embodiment, if the remote host determines to providethe player a bonus award for the player's gaming session, the remotehost may generate a bonus award amount and may instruct the gamingdevice to provide the player the generated bonus award. On the otherhand, if the remote host determines not to provide the player a bonusaward for the player's gaming session, after a set interval (such as anamount of time or coin-in accumulated) the remote host may redeterminewhether to provide the player a bonus award for the player's gamingsession.

In one embodiment, the designated threshold of gaming activity may bethe same for each player. In another embodiment, the designatedthreshold of gaming activity is different for different players. In onesuch embodiment, the designated threshold associated with each player'sgaming activity may be based on the player's status (such as determinedthrough a player tracking system). For example, a bronze player may havea threshold of gaming activity higher than a silver player, which mayhave a threshold of gaming activity higher than a gold player. Indifferent embodiments, the designated threshold for each player may bepredetermined, randomly determined, determined based on a generatedsymbol or symbol combination, determined based on a random determinationby the remote host, determined based on a random determination at thegaming machine, determined based on one or more side wagers placed,determined based on the player's primary game wager, determined based ontime (such as the time of day) or determined based on any other suitablemethod or criteria.

After providing the player a bonus award for the player's gamingsession, the remote host may reset the tracked gaming activity for theplayer's gaming session and restarts tracking the player's gamingactivity. By resetting or restarting the tracking of the player's gamingactivity (after providing the player a gaming session bonus award), thegaming system disclosed herein provides the player the opportunity towin multiple gaming session bonus awards during a single gaming session.It should be appreciated that by utilizing the master gaming controller,including a gaming device CPU or processor. for at least one awarddetermination (i.e., the game of chance outcome described above) and byutilizing the remote host for at least one award determination (i.e.,the gaming session bonus award), the gaming system disclosed herein maybe operable to provide a plurality of awards to a player wherein atleast one award is determined locally and at least one award isdetermined remotely.

It should be appreciated that in one embodiment wherein the ECI isutilized to provide a player an additional award, the gaming systemdisclosed herein may be capable of providing players different types ofawards based on the player's player tracking information, whereinplayer's wagers fund different player tracking based incentives orawards. That is, the gaming system may provide a single player a gamingsession bonus award (wherein the player's gaming activity is based onthe player's player tracking information) and may also provide theplayer a bonus drawing award (wherein the player's entries into thedrawing are based on the player's player tracking information). In thisembodiment, the gaming system may be operable to simultaneously run aplurality of different promotions wherein a player's standing or equityin each promotion is individually displayed to the player. Such aconfiguration provides increased entertainment and enjoyment for playersby enabling players to win additional awards based on their playertracking status.

In another embodiment, the utilization of a dynamic game interface and aseparate dynamic ECI generated on only a single display device orgenerated on separate displays, provides that a gaming device, which maypart of a gaming system, may be operable to simultaneously display,substantially simultaneously display or sequentially display and executemultiple games wherein at least one game outcome may be determinedlocally by the gaming device processor (i.e., the game of chanceassociated with the game interface) and at least one outcome isdetermined remotely by a remote host (i.e., the outcome provided via theECI). In another embodiment, the utilization of a dynamic game interfaceand a separate dynamic ECI generated only a single display device orgenerated on multiple displays, provides that a gaming device, which maybe part of the gaming system disclosed herein, may be operable todisplay the results of a plurality of different determinations whereinat least one determination is based on one or more generated symbols orsymbol combinations, at least one determination is independent of anygame play events and at least one determination is based on apromotional offering. In one such embodiment, at least one determinationis executed in a ‘thin client’ configuration (i.e., the player of aprimary game which is controlled by the remote host and displayed by thegaming machine or a session surprise bonus award determined by theremote host and displayed by the gaming machine) and at least onedetermination is executed in a ‘thick client’ configuration (i.e., agame of chance award determined by the master gaming controller, whereinthe game of chance may have been downloaded from the remote host).

In one embodiment, when the ECI is utilized to provide a player anoutcome or award in addition to a locally determined game award wherethe ECI based award is determined at a remote host, the remotelydetermined award and the locally determined game award are eachdetermined independently. In another embodiment, the remotely determinedaward is based, at least in part, on the locally determined award. Inanother embodiment, the locally determined outcome and associated awardis based, at least in part, on the remotely determined outcome.

In another embodiment when one or more ECIs are utilized to provideplayers one or more additional outcomes or awards via one or morepromotions, the gaming system disclosed herein tracks each of thepromotions provided via an ECI. In this embodiment, the gaming systemcompares the actual provided promotional outcomes or awards to atheoretical amount of promotional outcomes or awards. That is, thegaming system compares each gaming device's actual promotional return toa theoretical return, which may have been contemplated by a gamingestablishment operator when setting up the initial promotion. Based onthese comparisons, the gaming system may be enabled to change or modifyone or more criteria required to obtain a promotional outcome or awardto align the actual promotional return with the contemplated theoreticalpromotional return.

It should be appreciated that in one embodiment the gaming systemdisclosed herein provides an open-ended rules engine for gamingestablishments to create and provide any suitable promotion to one ormore players. In one such embodiment, the gaming system enables gamingestablishments to set up one or more rules, wherein if an event occurs(wherein the event is either related to game play or independent of gameplay), then based on the set up rules, certain features, services,outcomes or functions may be provided to or otherwise made available toone or more players. In one embodiment, the gaming system may enable agaming establishment to set up or input rules related to the differentcriteria for a player winning an award, the different types of awardsavailable to players, or combinations thereof, to achieve an averageexpected payback for one or more promotions and/or any combinationthereof. As described above, the one or more promotions may be providedvia ECIs executing on one or more gaming devices. Accordingly, theopen-ended rules engine provides increased flexibility to a gamingestablishment operator to further define and configure different aspectsof a player's gaming experience.

In such one embodiment, the gaming system disclosed herein may enable agaming establishment operator to configure the open-ended rules engineby defining different criteria for a player winning an award. Indifferent embodiments, the criteria may be based on a player's playertracking status, based on if a player has a player tracking card in agaming device of the gaming system, based on a player's amount of gameplay over a designated period of time, based on the generation of adesignated symbol combination at a designated wager level, based on oneor more side wagers placed, based on the player's primary game wager,based on time (such as the time of day) or based on any other suitablemethod or criteria. For example, a gaming establishment operator mayutilize the open-ended rules engine to establish that if a player'scurrently played gaming device generates a designated symbol combinationwhich includes three cherry symbols, and if the player has wagered atleast one credit on each available payline, then the player is eligiblefor a gaming establishment defined promotion.

In another such embodiment, the gaming system disclosed herein mayenable a gaming establishment operator to configure the open-ended rulesengine by defining what type of award a player may win. In differentembodiments, the type of award a player may win includes, but is notlimited to, a monetary award, a non-monetary prize, an offer to purchasean item, an entry in a promotion, a modifier, a modifier of any primarygame awards for a set amount of time, a number of free or discountedspins or activations of a game, a bonus or secondary game, a progressiveaward, a number of bonus award drawing tickets, a service or comp, anumber of player account points, a temporary change in the player'saccount status, a number of redeemable prize points, a number of roundsin a tournament, and an entry into a group play bonus event. Expandingon the example described above, if a player's currently played gamingdevice generated a designated symbol combination which included threecherry symbols and the player wagered at least one credit on eachavailable payline, then the open-ended rules engine (previously set upby the gaming establishment operator) may be used to determine that theplayer is eligible to win an award of ten bonus award drawing tickets.

In another such embodiment, the open-ended rules engine may be used todetermine and to display to a gaming establishment operator atheoretical payout or average expected payback of different selectablecriteria for a player winning an award and different selectable types ofawards, which may be provided to a player. In this embodiment, theopen-ended rules engine may enable a gaming establishment operator toselect different criteria to create different promotions, wherein thegaming system displays how changes of different criteria affect apromotion's theoretical payout or average expected payback. Using theexample described above, the open-ended rules engine may be operable toinform the gaming establishment operator the different average expectedpaybacks if the gaming system includes a first promotion where a playeris provided ten drawing tickets if the player's currently played gamingdevice generated a designated symbol combination which included threecherry symbols and the player wagered at least one credit on eachavailable payline versus a second promotion where a player is providedeight drawing tickets if the player's currently played gaming devicegenerated a designated symbol combination which included three cherrysymbols and the player wagered at least one credit on each availablepayline. Accordingly, the utilization of the open-ended rules engineenables different gaming establishments to create and implementdifferent promotional offers to differentiate themselves from othergaming establishments.

As indicated above, in one embodiment, the gaming system disclosedherein may be operable to display any suitable information, includingprogressive jackpot information, via one or more ECIs to the playersthrough one or more displays on the gaming machines or additionalinformation displays positioned near the gaming machines, such as abovea bank of system gaming machines. This information may be used toentertain the players, inform the players about any aspect of game playoccurring on one or more gaming devices in the gaming system or informthe player of any aspect of any promotional offering occurring on one ormore gaming devices in the gaming system. It should be appreciated thatsuch information can be provided to the players through any suitableaudio, audio-visual or visual devices.

Player Interface

As seen in FIG. 5B, a few examples of menu navigation available with theECI 502 are illustrated. In FIG. 5B, the ECI 502 outputs touch screenbuttons 530. In response to an activation of the touch screen proximateto each menu button, the ECI 502 may output different media, includingbut not limited to video and audio based information. For example, whenthe play activates the comp/point redemptions, the ECI 502 may enablethe player to redeem their points for merchandise, entertainment orservices. In one embodiment, when the comp button is activated, a menuof restaurants and points required to obtain a meal at each restaurant.In another embodiment, when a selection of a restaurant is made, pointsmay be deducted from the player loyalty account and the player mayreceive a receipt or a voucher indicating their award. In oneembodiment, the ECI 502 may enable the player to obtain additionalinformation about each restaurant and even make reservations. Anactivation of the “go back” button on the touch screen may cause the ECI502 to return to a previous menu page.

An activation of the “my calendar” button on the touch screen may causethe ECI 502 to display information regarding upcoming events that may beof interest to the player on the ECI 502. An activation of the touchscreen proximate to each event may cause the ECI to display additionalinformation about the event. An activation of the “beverage” button onthe touch screen causes the ECI 502 to display additional menu itemsregarding beverages that are available for the player to order (notshown). These menus may enable the player to place an order for thebeverage which may be brought to the gaming machine 500.

An activation of the “host” button on the touch screen may cause the 502to display an ECI for providing a communication interface. As isillustrated in FIG. 5B, the communication interface may initiate a“live” communication session with a casino host. A communication sessionincluding video and audio transmissions is shown. In general, thecommunication interface may be used to initiate communications withcasino representatives, other players at gaming machines or even remotecommunications to cell phones and other communication devices. Thecommunication interface may utilize video, audio, text or combinationsthereof to provide the communications.

In a particular embodiment, the communication interface and the compinterface that shows the points needed to redeem a meal may besimultaneously instantiated as separate ECIs displayed simultaneously onone or more display screens. In this embodiment, the ECI providing thecomps may communicate information to the ECI providing the communicationinterface, such as a restaurant selection that has been input. The hostutilizing the communication may receive this information via the ECI forthe communication interface and use it to provide the player a service,such as making a reservation for the player or communicating additionalinformation about the restaurant.

In another embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 9A, the gaming systemenables one or more players at one or more gaming machines to interactwith the gaming machine and/or the remote host via a customizableinterface. In FIGS. 9A-9D, an ECI and a game interface are shown on asingle display for illustrative purposes only. In various embodiments,on a single gaming device, one or more ECIs and/game interfaces may bedistributed on a plurality of different displays where the number ofECIs and/or game interfaces generated and the distribution of the ECIsand/game interfaces on the plurality of different displays including aposition/location on each display may vary with time. Further, although,in FIGS. 5A, 5B, 9A-9D, ECIs utilizing touch screen enabled displays areemphasized, the present invention is not so limited, and as describedwith at least respect to FIG. 3B, different combination of input andoutput devices not limited to touch screen enabled displays or evenrequiring a touch screen enabled display, may be utilized as componentsof an ECI.

In one embodiment, one or more aspects of the customizable interface areassociated with functions performed by the remote host (i.e., the playeror ECI interface 502) and/or one or more aspects of the customizableinterface are associated with functions performed by the gaming machine(i.e., the game interface 503). That is, as illustrated in FIG. 9D, theresult of at least one player input that is detected on the gamingdevice may cause a change related to the locally controlled game (e.g.,a player changing their bet amount via the bet slider input) and theresult of at least another player input may cause a change related tothe externally controlled process (e.g., a player notifying a gamingestablishment concierge via the concierge input). In another embodiment,one or more aspects of the customizable interface may be independent ofthe game interface (controlled by the master gaming controller includinga gaming machine processor) and/or one or more aspects of thecustomizable interface may be based on one or more events associatedwith the game interface. In different embodiments, the customizableinterface is associated with information personal to the player,information relating to the plurality of different games available tothe player, information communicated from a gaming establishmentservices system, information communicated from at least another gamingmachine or information relating to any other suitable aspect of theplayer's experience at the gaming machine. This configuration may enabledifferent customizable features performed by different processors atdifferent locations to be simultaneously displayed and altered by theplayer, thus enhancing the player's gaming experience.

In a first setting of one embodiment of the gaming machine of the gamingsystem disclosed herein, the display device may be operable to displaygaming outcomes. In a second setting of this embodiment, the display maybe operable to shade the gaming outcomes and activate an interactiveplayer menu from a single touch of a button. The button may be a touchscreen activated button or mechanical button coupled to the gamingdevice. When this button is pressed, a menu may be displayed with anumber of options that will bring up further menus, thus resulting in anumber of nested menus 1020. As seen in FIGS. 9B, 9C & 9D, the pluralityof nested menus 1020 may enable the player to navigate through differentaspects of the interface in an efficient manner. Such an embodiment mayprovide the player a maximum amount of accessible information with aminimum number of player inputs. In different embodiments, the nestedmenus which are displayed and accessible by a player may bepredetermined, determined based on the player's status (such asdetermined through a player tracking system), determined by the remotehost, determined by the gaming machine processor, determined based onone or more side wagers placed, determined based on the player's primarygame wager, determined based on time (such as the time of day) ordetermined based on any other suitable method or criteria. It should beappreciated that utilizing one or more nested menus optimizes theplayer's ease of use of the gaming machine by providing an interfacewherein the features of the greatest interest are available from asingle button. That is, to access the menus, the player may need onlytouch a single button from the base game and the menu bar will pop upgiving the player immediate access to a number of features.

In one embodiment, as illustrated in FIGS. 9B and 9C, a first availablesubmenu enables the player to interact with a remote host which stores aplurality of games. For example, by accessing a “More Games” submenu,the player accesses a database of available games. In this example, thegaming machine enables the player to choose a game to play, store one ormore games as favorites, rate a game on a scale of some type (e.g., 3.5our of 4 stars where is 1 is a poor game and 4 is an excellent game or 9out of 10 wherein 1 is a poor game and 10 is a great game), or browseinformation pertaining to the different games available. Such aconfiguration provides the player the ability to select any game that isavailable to play at the player's current gaming machine and thuseliminating a player having to search for a specific machine in order toplay a specific game. This submenu provides the player with a superiorinterface for interacting with the capabilities that the disclosedgaming system present. In a particular embodiment, the submenu may be ina “tabbed” format.

The rating information provided by the player may be stored for only theplayer, collected and combined with other players rating information orcombinations thereof. The rating information provided by the player maybe stored for only the player, collected and combined with other playersrating information or combinations thereof. In one embodiment, combinedrating information generated from player selections may utilized by agaming operator to determine a distribution of games in a casino and notnecessarily displayed to the player. In another embodiment, the combinedrating information may be displayed to players. Players viewing thecombined rating information may utilize the information as an aid inregards to selecting games to play.

The rating information may be displayed alone or in combination withother information. For instance, the rating information may be displayedin conjunction with ranking information such as the most played games,the games providing the most awards (hot games), the games providing theleast awards (cool games). Further, the information including the ratinginformation, ranking information may be categorized, such as accordingto game theme or game type. Further, the rating information may besorted, such as from highest to lowest ranked or lowest to highest, top10, top 3, etc. In particular embodiments, the rating and/or rankinginformation may be sorted within a category (e.g., the rankings and/orratings of the game may be sorted on only data from the particularcategory) or the combinations of information may be sorted across allgames for which data is available and then the data may be sortedaccording to category.

In another embodiment, a second submenu enables the player to accessdesignated information personal and exclusive to the player. Forexample, the player accesses this submenu via a “Services” button. Fromthis menu, the gaming machine of the gaming system enables the player toaccess their casino account, redeem comps, check on their points, updatetheir information, redeem qualified promotions or bonuses, or performany other beneficial function for the player or gaming establishment. Inone such embodiment, the account store game preference information (suchas denomination, games, paylines, etc.) that will automatically loadonto the gaming machine.

In another embodiment, a third available submenu enables the player toinstruct the gaming machine processor to interact with a gamingestablishment services system. From this menu, as described above, theplayer is enabled to connect the gaming machine with certain gamingestablishment services, such as order a drink, make a reservation fordinner, make entertainment reservations, call a host or employee, reporta malfunction, call for service, or perform any other gamingestablishment service function that would be beneficial to the player orto the gaming establishment.

In another embodiment, a fourth available submenu available enables theplayer to instruct the gaming machine processor to interact with atleast another gaming machine. In this embodiment, utilizing such asubmenu, the player could connect with another gaming machine forpurposes of shared game play, wagering on the outcome of another gamingmachine, communication, participating in different bonus games notavailable on their own gaming machine, create their own groupings ofplayer to participate in a bonus event, or any other possible gamefunction. Such a configuration enables the player to enhance theirgaming experience by connecting with other gaming machines, searchingfor a specific player/machine, join specific tournaments or progressiveevents or group with other players to form a group that may beassociated with their own bonus event.

In another embodiment, a fifth available submenu enables the player tomodify the function of at least one setting for the gaming machine. Inthis embodiment, possible play settings that may be modified include,but are not limited to an auto-play setting, a double-up setting, avalue selection setting, a payline selection setting, a wager selectionsetting, a multi-play selection setting, a volume selection setting, orany other appropriate modification to the settings. This embodimentenables the player to essentially customize the gaming machine to theirown personal preferences and settings. It should be appreciated thatthis feature may hooked into a player tracking database wherein theplayer could store their preferences and use this sub-menu to enactthem.

In another embodiment, a sixth available submenu enables the player todisplay pay table information. Possible displayed information includes,but is not limited to pay screen information, game rule information,game type information, scatter pay information, winning combinationinformation, pay table information or any other appropriate informationrelating to the game pay or game pay statistics. This embodiment enablesthe player to learn more about the game they are playing, understandwhat the payout/winning combinations are, and gain a feel for the game'splay.

In another embodiment, a seventh available submenu enables the player tomodify the function of at least one side bet setting for the gamingmachine. In this embodiment, a gaming establishment may have multipleprogressives running at the same time, wherein by providing the playeraccess to a special side bet section, the gaming system enables theplayer to choose which progressives they wish to participate in andplace a side wager. It should be appreciated that any other gamingevents associated with a side wager could be linked into this submenu aswell.

It should be appreciated that to build one or more of the menusdescribed above, the remote host utilizes information specific to eachgaming device, such as how the games on a designated gaming device areconfigured, what games are stored locally on a designated gaming device,which player is playing a designated gaming device and what promotionalfeatures is the player qualified for. In one embodiment, the player'scurrently played gaming device communicates information to the remotehost and the remote host builds one or more menus based on thiscommunicated information. In another embodiment, when the remote hostcommunicates or downloads information relating to the currently playedgame program of the gaming device, the remote host logs in theappropriate information. In this embodiment, when determining to buildone or more menus, the remote host accesses this logged in informationto determine one or more menus for the player's currently played gamingdevice. In another embodiment, the remote host periodically checks whichgames are being played on one or more gaming devices and storesinformation or data relating resulting from these checks. In thisembodiment, when building one or more menus, the remote host accessesthis stored information to determine one or more menus for the player'scurrently played gaming device.

In the examples described above, ECIs that may be utilized by a playerare described, the present invention is not limited to ECIs utilized bya player. In other embodiments, ECIs may be provided that are meant tobe only accessible to a gaming operator, such as configuration, gamedownload, metering, hand pays, jackpot verification, tax forms, ordiagnostic menus, history for a particular gaming device. To access anECI meant to be accessed by a gaming operator, the gaming device mayrequire additional information to be entered and verified, such as a PINnumber/password, a special card to be inserted in a card reader,biometric information, information from a remote host, such as anauthorization or combinations thereof.

Gaming Machine

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of a gaming machine 2 in accordance witha specific embodiment of the present invention. The gaming devices andgaming functions described with respect to at least FIG. 6 may beincorporated as components of the ECI's described above with respect toat least FIGS. 1 thru 5B and 9A-9D. Further, the gaming devices may beoperated in accordance with instructions received from a remote host incommunication with the gaming machine. In some instance, ahost-controlled process executed on the gaming machine may share agaming device with a process controlled by the master gaming controller46 on the gaming machine.

As illustrated in the example of FIG. 6, machine 2 includes a maincabinet 4, which generally surrounds the machine interior and isviewable by users. The main cabinet includes a main door 8 on the frontof the machine, which opens to provide access to the interior of themachine.

In one embodiment, attached to the main door is at least one paymentacceptor 28 and a bill validator 30, and a coin tray 38. In oneembodiment, the payment acceptor may include a coin slot and a payment,note or bill acceptor, where the player inserts money, coins or tokens.The player can place coins in the coin slot or paper money, a ticket orvoucher into the payment, note or bill acceptor. In other embodiments,devices such as readers or validators for credit cards, debit cards orcredit slips may accept payment. In one embodiment, a player may insertan identification card into a card reader of the gaming machine. In oneembodiment, the identification card is a smart card having a programmedmicrochip or a magnetic strip coded with a player's identification,credit totals (or related data) and other relevant information. Inanother embodiment, a player may carry a portable device, such as a cellphone, a radio frequency identification tag or any other suitablewireless device, which communicates a player's identification, credittotals (or related data) and other relevant information to the gamingmachine. In one embodiment, money may be transferred to a gaming machinethrough electronic funds transfer. When a player funds the gamingmachine, the master gaming controller 46 or another logic device coupledto the gaming machine determines the amount of funds entered anddisplays the corresponding amount on the credit or other suitabledisplay as described above.

In one embodiment attached to the main door are a plurality ofplayer-input switches or buttons 32. The input switches can include anysuitable devices which enables the player to produce an input signalwhich is received by the processor. In one embodiment, after appropriatefunding of the gaming machine, the input switch is a game activationdevice, such as a pull arm or a play button which is used by the playerto start any primary game or sequence of events in the gaming machine.The play button can be any suitable play activator such as a bet onebutton, a max bet button or a repeat the bet button. In one embodiment,upon appropriate funding, the gaming machine may begin the game playautomatically. In another embodiment, upon the player engaging one ofthe play buttons, the gaming machine may automatically activate gameplay.

In one embodiment, one input switch is a bet one button. The playerplaces a bet by pushing the bet one button. The player can increase thebet by one credit each time the player pushes the bet one button. Whenthe player pushes the bet one button, the number of credits shown in thecredit display preferably decreases by one, and the number of creditsshown in the bet display preferably increases by one. In anotherembodiment, one input switch is a bet max button (not shown), whichenables the player to bet the maximum wager permitted for a game of thegaming machine.

In one embodiment, one input switch is a cash-out button. The player maypush the cash-out button and cash out to receive a cash payment or othersuitable form of payment corresponding to the number of remainingcredits. In one embodiment, when the player cashes out, the player mayreceive the coins or tokens in a coin payout tray. In one embodiment,when the player cashes out, the player may receive other payoutmechanisms such as tickets or credit slips redeemable by a cashier (orother suitable redemption system) or funding to the player'selectronically recordable identification card. Details of ticketing orvoucher system that may be utilized with the present invention aredescribed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/406,911,filed Apr. 2, 2003, by Rowe, et al., and entitled, “Cashless TransactionClearinghouse,” which is incorporated herein by reference and for allpurposes.

In one embodiment, one input switch is a touch-screen coupled with atouch-screen controller, or some other touch-sensitive display overlayto enable for player interaction with the images on the display. Thetouch-screen and the touch-screen controller may be connected to a videocontroller. A player may make decisions and input signals into thegaming machine by touching the touch-screen at the appropriate places.One such input switch is a touch-screen button panel.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine may further include a plurality ofcommunication ports for enabling communication of the gaming machineprocessor with external peripherals, such as external video sources,expansion buses, game or other displays, an SCSI port or a key pad.

As seen in FIG. 6, viewable through the main door is a video displaymonitor 34 and an information panel 36. The display monitor 34 willtypically be a cathode ray tube, high resolution flat-panel LCD, SEDbased-display, plasma display, a television display, a display based onlight emitting diodes (LED), a display based on a plurality of organiclight-emitting diodes (OLEDs), a display based on polymer light-emittingdiodes (PLEDs), a display including a projected and/or reflected imageor any other suitable electronic device or display. The informationpanel 36 or belly-glass 40 may be a static back-lit, silk screened glasspanel with lettering to indicate general game information including, forexample, a game denomination (e.g. $0.25 or $1) or a dynamic display,such as an LCD, an OLED or E-INK display. In another embodiment, atleast one display device may be a mobile display device, such as a PDAor tablet PC, that enables play of at least a portion of the primary orsecondary game at a location remote from the gaming machine. The displaydevices may be of any suitable size and configuration, such as a square,a rectangle or an elongated rectangle.

The display devices of the gaming machine are configured to display atleast one and preferably a plurality of game or other suitable images,symbols and indicia such as any visual representation or exhibition ofthe movement of objects such as mechanical, virtual or video reels andwheels, dynamic lighting, video images, images of people, characters,places, things and faces of cards, and the like. In one alternativeembodiment, the symbols, images and indicia displayed on or of thedisplay device may be in mechanical form. That is, the display devicemay include any electromechanical device, such as one or more mechanicalobjects, such as one or more rotatable wheels, reels or dice, configuredto display at least one or a plurality of game or other suitable images,symbols or indicia. In another embodiment, the display device mayinclude an electromechanical device adjacent to a video display, such asa video display positioned in front of a mechanical reel. In anotherembodiment, the display device may include dual layered video displayswhich co-act to generate one or more images.

The bill validator 30, player-input switches 32, video display monitor34, and information panel are gaming devices that may be used to play agame on the game machine 2. Also, these devices may be utilized as partof an ECI provided on the gaming machine. According to a specificembodiment, the devices may be controlled by code executed by a mastergaming controller 46 housed inside the main cabinet 4 of the machine 2.The master gaming controller may include one or more processorsincluding general purpose and specialized processors, such as graphicscards, and one or more memory devices including volatile andnon-volatile memory. The master gaming controller 46 may periodicallyconfigure and/or authenticate the code executed on the gaming machine.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine may include a sound generatingdevice coupled to one or more sounds cards. In one embodiment, the soundgenerating device includes at least one and preferably a plurality ofspeakers or other sound generating hardware and/or software forgenerating sounds, such as playing music for the primary and/orsecondary game or for other modes of the gaming machine, such as anattract mode. In one embodiment, the gaming machine provides dynamicsounds coupled with attractive multimedia images displayed on one ormore of the display devices to provide an audio-visual representation orto otherwise display full-motion video with sound to attract players tothe gaming machine. During idle periods, the gaming machine may displaya sequence of audio and/or visual attraction messages to attractpotential players to the gaming machine. The videos may also becustomized for or to provide any appropriate information.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine may include a sensor, such as acamera that is selectively positioned to acquire an image of a playeractively using the gaming machine and/or the surrounding area of thegaming machine. In one embodiment, the camera may be configured toselectively acquire still or moving (e.g., video) images and may beconfigured to acquire the images in either an analog, digital or othersuitable format. The display devices may be configured to display theimage acquired by the camera as well as display the visiblemanifestation of the game in split screen or picture-in-picture fashion.For example, the camera may acquire an image of the player and theprocessor may incorporate that image into the primary and/or secondarygame as a game image, symbol or indicia.

In another embodiment, the gaming devices on the gaming machine may becontrolled by code executed by the master gaming controller 46 (oranother logic device coupled to or in communication with the gamingmachine, such as a player tracking controller) in conjunction with codeexecuted by a remote logic device in communication with the mastergaming controller 46. As described above with respect to at least FIGS.1A to 5B and 7, 8, 9A-9D, the master gaming controller 46 may executeECI processes that enable content generated and managed on a remote hostto be output on the gaming machine. The gaming machine may receive andsend events to a remote host that may affect the content output on aninstantiation of a particular ECI. The master gaming controller 46 maybe configured to limit the resources that can be utilized by the ECIprocesses executing on the gaming machine at any given time and mayconstantly monitor resources utilized by the ECI processes to ensurethat gaming experience on the gaming machine is optimal.

Games Played

Many different types of games, including mechanical slot games, videoslot games, video poker, video black jack, video pachinko and lottery,may be provided with gaming machines of this present invention. Inparticular, the gaming machine 2 may be operable to provide a play ofmany different games of chance. The games may be differentiatedaccording to themes, sounds, graphics, type of game (e.g., slot game vs.card game), denomination, number of paylines, maximum jackpot,progressive or non-progressive, bonus games, etc.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine 2 may be operable to enable aplayer to select a game of chance to play from a plurality of differentgames available on the gaming machine. For example, the gaming machinemay provide a menu with a list of the different games that are availablefor play on the gaming machine and a player may be able to select fromthe list a first game of chance that they wish to play. In one suchembodiment, a memory device of the remote host stores different gameprograms and instructions, executable by a gaming machine processor, tocontrol the gaming machine. Each executable game program represents adifferent game or type of game, which may be played on one or more ofthe gaming machines in the gaming system. Such different games mayinclude the same or substantially the same game play with different paytables. In different embodiments, the executable game program is for aprimary game, a secondary game or both. In another embodiment, the gameprogram may be executable as a secondary game to be played simultaneouswith the play of a primary game (which may be downloaded to or fixed onthe gaming machine) or vice versa.

In one such embodiment, each gaming machine includes at least one ormore display devices and/or one or more input switches for interactionwith a player. A local processor, such as the above-described gamingmachine processor or a processor of a local server, is operable with thedisplay device(s) and/or the input switch(s) of one or more of thegaming machines. In operation, the remote host is operable tocommunicate one or more of the stored game programs to at least onelocal gaming machine processor. In different embodiments, the storedgame programs are communicated or delivered by embedding thecommunicated game program in a device or a component (e.g., a microchipto be inserted in a gaming machine), writing the game program on a discor other media, downloading or streaming the game program over adedicated data network, internet or a telephone line. In differentembodiments, the stored game programs are downloaded in response to aplayer inserting a player tracking card, a player selecting a specificgame program, a player inserting a designated wager amount, the remotehost communicating data to the gaming device regarding an upcomingtournament or promotion or any other suitable trigger. After the storedgame programs are communicated from the remote host, the local gamingmachine processor executes the communicated program to facilitate playof the communicated program by a player through the display device(s)and/or input switch(s) of the gaming machine. That is, when a gameprogram is communicated to a local gaming machine processor, the localgaming machine processor changes the game or type of game played at thegaming machine.

In particular embodiments, the master gaming controller 46 may provideinformation to a remote host providing content to an ECI on the gamingmachine 2 that enables the remote host to select graphical and audiothemes for the ECI content that matches the theme of the game graphicsand game sounds currently played on the gaming machine 2.

In one embodiment, the various games available for play on the gamingmachine 2 may be stored as game software on a mass storage device in thegaming machine. In one such embodiment, the memory device of the gamingmachine stores program codes and instructions, executable by the gamingmachine processor, to control the games available for play on the gamingmachine. The memory device also stores other data such as image data,event data, player input data, random or pseudo-random numbergenerators, pay-table data or information and applicable game rules thatrelate to the play of the gaming machine. In another embodiment, thegames available for play on the gaming machine may be generated on aremote gaming device but then displayed on the gaming machine.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine 2 may execute game software, suchas but not limited to video streaming software that enables the game tobe displayed on the gaming machine. When a game is stored on the gamingmachine 2, it may be loaded from the mass storage device into a RAM forexecution. In some cases, after a selection of a game, the game softwarethat enables the selected game to be generated may be downloaded from aremote gaming device, such as another gaming machine.

As illustrated in the example of FIG. 6, the gaming machine 2 includes atop box 6, which sits on top of the main cabinet 4. The top box 6 housesa number of devices, which may be used to add features to a game beingplayed on the gaming machine 2, including speakers 10, 12, 14, a ticketprinter 18 which prints bar-coded tickets 20, a key pad 22 for enteringplayer tracking information, a display 16 (e.g., a video LCD display)for displaying player tracking information, a card reader 24 forentering a magnetic striped card containing player tracking information,and a video display screen 45. The ticket printer 18 may be used toprint tickets for a cashless ticketing system. Further, the top box 6may house different or additional devices not illustrated in FIG. 6. Forexample, the top box may include a bonus wheel or a back-lit silkscreened panel which may be used to add bonus features to the game beingplayed on the gaming machine. As another example, the top box mayinclude a display for a progressive jackpot offered on the gamingmachine. During a game, these devices are controlled and powered, inpart, by circuitry (e.g. a master gaming controller 46) housed withinthe main cabinet 4 of the machine 2.

It will be appreciated that gaming machine 2 is but one example from awide range of gaming machine designs on which the present invention maybe implemented. For example, not all suitable gaming machines have topboxes or player tracking features. Further, some gaming machines haveonly a single game display—mechanical or video, while others may havemultiple displays.

Networks

In various embodiments, the remote gaming device may be connected to thehost computer via a network of some type such as a local area network, awide area network, an intranet or the Internet. In one such embodiment,a plurality of the gaming machines may be capable of being connectedtogether through a data network. In one embodiment, the data network isa local area network (LAN), in which one or more of the gaming machinesare substantially proximate to each other and an on-site remote host asin, for example, a gaming establishment or a portion of a gamingestablishment. In another embodiment, the data network is a wide areanetwork (WAN) in which one or more of the gaming machines are incommunication with at least one off-site remote host. In thisembodiment, the plurality of gaming machines may be located in adifferent part of the gaming establishment or within a different gamingestablishment than the off-site remote host. Thus, the WAN may includean off-site remote host and an off-site gaming machine located withingaming establishments in the same geographic area, such as a city orstate. The WAN gaming system may be substantially identical to the LANgaming system described above, although the number of gaming machines ineach system may vary relative to each other.

In another embodiment, the data network is an internet or intranet. Inthis embodiment, the operation of the gaming machine can be viewed atthe gaming machine with at least one internet browser. In thisembodiment, operation of the gaming machine and accumulation of creditsmay be accomplished with only a connection to the central server orcontroller (the internet/intranet server) through a conventional phoneor other data transmission line, digital subscriber line (DSL), T-1line, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, or other suitable connection. Inthis embodiment, players may access an internet game page from anylocation where an internet connection and computer, or other internetfacilitator is available. The expansion in the number of computers andnumber and speed of internet connections in recent years increasesopportunities for players to play from an ever-increasing number ofremote sites. It should be appreciated that enhanced bandwidth ofdigital wireless communications may render such technology suitable forsome or all communications, particularly if such communications areencrypted. Higher data transmission speeds may be useful for enhancingthe sophistication and response of the display and interaction with theplayer.

In another embodiment, the remote gaming device may be a portable gamingdevice such as but not limited to a cell phone, a personal digitalassistant, and a wireless game player. Images rendered from 3-D gamingenvironments may be displayed on portable gaming devices that are usedto play a game of chance. Further a gaming machine or server may includegaming logic for commanding a remote gaming device to render an imagefrom a virtual camera in a 3-D gaming environments stored on the remotegaming device and to display the rendered image on a display located onthe remote gaming device. In addition, various combinations of gamingdevices are possible on the gaming machine. For example, some gamingmachine only accept cash, cashless vouchers or electronic fund transfersand do not include coin acceptors or coin hoppers. Thus, those of skillin the art will understand that the present invention, as describedbelow, can be deployed on most any gaming machine now available orhereafter developed.

In another embodiment, the gaming machine disclosed herein is operableover a wireless network, such as part of a wireless gaming system. Inthis embodiment, the gaming machine may be a hand held device, a mobiledevice or any other suitable wireless device that enables a player toplay any suitable game at a variety of different locations. It should beappreciated that a gaming machine as disclosed herein may be a devicethat has obtained approval from a regulatory gaming commission or adevice that has not obtained approval from a regulatory gamingcommission.

Gaming Machine vs. General-Purpose Computer

Some preferred gaming machines of the present assignee are implementedwith special features and/or additional circuitry that differentiatesthem from general-purpose computers (e.g., desktop PC's and laptops).Gaming machines are highly regulated to ensure fairness and, in manycases, gaming machines are operable to dispense monetary awards ofmultiple millions of dollars. Therefore, to satisfy security andregulatory requirements in a gaming environment, hardware and softwarearchitectures may be implemented in gaming machines that differsignificantly from those of general-purpose computers. A description ofgaming machines relative to general-purpose computing machines and someexamples of the additional (or different) components and features foundin gaming machines are described below.

At first glance, one might think that adapting PC technologies to thegaming industry would be a simple proposition because both PCs andgaming machines employ microprocessors that control a variety ofdevices. However, because of such reasons as 1) the regulatoryrequirements that are placed upon gaming machines, 2) the harshenvironment in which gaming machines operate, 3) security requirementsand 4) fault tolerance requirements, adapting PC technologies to agaming machine can be quite difficult. Further, techniques and methodsfor solving a problem in the PC industry, such as device compatibilityand connectivity issues, might not be adequate in the gamingenvironment. For instance, a fault or a weakness tolerated in a PC, suchas security holes in software or frequent crashes, may not be toleratedin a gaming machine because in a gaming machine these faults can lead toa direct loss of funds from the gaming machine, such as stolen cash orloss of revenue when the gaming machine is not operating properly.

For the purposes of illustration, a few differences between PC systemsand gaming systems will be described. A first difference between gamingmachines and common PC based computers systems is that gaming machinesare designed to be state-based systems. In a state-based system, thesystem stores and maintains its current state in a non-volatile memory,such that, in the event of a power failure or other malfunction thegaming machine will return to its current state when the power isrestored. For instance, if a player was shown an award for a game ofchance and, before the award could be provided to the player the powerfailed, the gaming machine, upon the restoration of power, would returnto the state where the award is indicated. As anyone who has used a PC,knows, PCs are not state machines and a majority of data is usually lostwhen a malfunction occurs. This requirement affects the software andhardware design on a gaming machine.

A second important difference between gaming machines and common PCbased computer systems is that for regulation purposes, the software onthe gaming machine used to generate the game of chance and operate thegaming machine has been designed to be static and monolithic to preventcheating by the operator of gaming machine. For instance, one solutionthat has been employed in the gaming industry to prevent cheating andsatisfy regulatory requirements has been to manufacture a gaming machinethat can use a proprietary processor running instructions to generatethe game of chance from an EPROM or other form of non-volatile memory.The coding instructions on the EPROM are static (non-changeable) andmust be approved by a gaming regulators in a particular jurisdiction andinstalled in the presence of a person representing the gamingjurisdiction. Any changes to any part of the software required togenerate the game of chance, such as adding a new device driver used bythe master gaming controller to operate a device during generation ofthe game of chance can require a new EPROM to be burnt, approved by thegaming jurisdiction and reinstalled on the gaming machine in thepresence of a gaming regulator. Regardless of whether the EPROM solutionis used, to gain approval in most gaming jurisdictions, a gaming machinemust demonstrate sufficient safeguards that prevent an operator orplayer of a gaming machine from manipulating hardware and software in amanner that gives them an unfair and some cases an illegal advantage.The gaming machine should have a means to determine if the code it willexecute is valid. If the code is not valid, the gaming machine must havea means to prevent the code from being executed. The code validationrequirements in the gaming industry affect both hardware and softwaredesigns on gaming machines.

A third important difference between gaming machines and common PC basedcomputer systems is the number and kinds of peripheral devices used on agaming machine are not as great as on PC based computer systems.Traditionally, in the gaming industry, gaming machines have beenrelatively simple in the sense that the number of peripheral devices andthe number of functions the gaming machine has been limited. Further, inoperation, the functionality of gaming machines were relatively constantonce the gaming machine was deployed, i.e., new peripherals devices andnew gaming software were infrequently added to the gaming machine. Thisdiffers from a PC where users will go out and buy different combinationsof devices and software from different manufacturers and connect them toa PC to suit their needs depending on a desired application. Therefore,the types of devices connected to a PC may vary greatly from user touser depending in their individual requirements and may varysignificantly over time.

Although the variety of devices available for a PC may be greater thanon a gaming machine, gaming machines still have unique devicerequirements that differ from a PC, such as device security requirementsnot usually addressed by PCs. For instance, monetary devices, such ascoin dispensers, bill validators and ticket printers and computingdevices that are used to govern the input and output of cash to a gamingmachine have security requirements that are not typically addressed inPCs. Therefore, many PC techniques and methods developed to facilitatedevice connectivity and device compatibility do not address the emphasisplaced on security in the gaming industry.

To address some of the issues described above, a number ofhardware/software components and architectures are utilized in gamingmachines that are not typically found in general purpose computingdevices, such as PCs. These hardware/software components andarchitectures, as described below in more detail, include but are notlimited to watchdog timers, voltage monitoring systems, state-basedsoftware architecture and supporting hardware, specialized communicationinterfaces, security monitoring and trusted memory.

For example, a watchdog timer is normally used in International GameTechnology (IGT) gaming machines to provide a software failure detectionmechanism. In a normally operating system, the operating softwareperiodically accesses control registers in the watchdog timer subsystemto “re-trigger” the watchdog. Should the operating software fail toaccess the control registers within a preset timeframe, the watchdogtimer will timeout and generate a system reset. Typical watchdog timercircuits include a loadable timeout counter register to enable theoperating software to set the timeout interval within a certain range oftime. A differentiating feature of the some preferred circuits is thatthe operating software cannot completely disable the function of thewatchdog timer. In other words, the watchdog timer always functions fromthe time power is applied to the board.

IGT gaming computer platforms preferably use several power supplyvoltages to operate portions of the computer circuitry. These can begenerated in a central power supply or locally on the computer board. Ifany of these voltages falls out of the tolerance limits of the circuitrythey power, unpredictable operation of the computer may result. Thoughmost modern general-purpose computers include voltage monitoringcircuitry, these types of circuits only report voltage status to theoperating software. Out of tolerance voltages can cause softwaremalfunction, creating a potential uncontrolled condition in the gamingcomputer. Gaming machines of the present assignee typically have powersupplies with tighter voltage margins than that required by theoperating circuitry. In addition, the voltage monitoring circuitryimplemented in IGT gaming computers typically has two thresholds ofcontrol. The first threshold generates a software event that can bedetected by the operating software and an error condition generated.This threshold is triggered when a power supply voltage falls out of thetolerance range of the power supply, but is still within the operatingrange of the circuitry. The second threshold is set when a power supplyvoltage falls out of the operating tolerance of the circuitry. In thiscase, the circuitry generates a reset, halting operation of thecomputer.

The standard method of operation for IGT gaming machine game software isto use a state machine. Different functions of the game (bet, play,result, points in the graphical presentation, etc.) may be defined as astate. When a game moves from one state to another, critical dataregarding the game software is stored in a custom non-volatile memorysubsystem. This is critical to ensure the player's wager and credits arepreserved and to minimize potential disputes in the event of amalfunction on the gaming machine.

In general, the gaming machine does not advance from a first state to asecond state until critical information that enables the first state tobe reconstructed is stored. This feature enables the game to recoveroperation to the current state of play in the event of a malfunction,loss of power, etc that occurred just prior to the malfunction. Afterthe state of the gaming machine is restored during the play of a game ofchance, game play may resume and the game may be completed in a mannerthat is no different than if the malfunction had not occurred.Typically, battery backed RAM devices are used to preserve this criticaldata although other types of non-volatile memory devices may beemployed. These memory devices are not used in typical general-purposecomputers.

As described in the preceding paragraph, when a malfunction occursduring a game of chance, the gaming machine may be restored to a statein the game of chance just prior to when the malfunction occurred. Therestored state may include metering information and graphicalinformation that was displayed on the gaming machine in the state priorto the malfunction. For example, when the malfunction occurs during theplay of a card game after the cards have been dealt, the gaming machinemay be restored with the cards that were previously displayed as part ofthe card game. As another example, a bonus game may be triggered duringthe play of a game of chance where a player is required to make a numberof selections on a video display screen. When a malfunction has occurredafter the player has made one or more selections, the gaming machine maybe restored to a state that shows the graphical presentation at the justprior to the malfunction including an indication of selections that havealready been made by the player. In general, the gaming machine may berestored to any state in a plurality of states that occur in the game ofchance that occurs while the game of chance is played or to states thatoccur between the play of a game of chance.

Game history information regarding previous games played such as anamount wagered, the outcome of the game and so forth may also be storedin a non-volatile memory device. The information stored in thenon-volatile memory may be detailed enough to reconstruct a portion ofthe graphical presentation that was previously presented on the gamingmachine and the state of the gaming machine (e.g., credits) at the timethe game of chance was played. The game history information may beutilized in the event of a dispute. For example, a player may decidethat in a previous game of chance that they did not receive credit foran award that they believed they won. The game history information maybe used to reconstruct the state of the gaming machine prior, duringand/or after the disputed game to demonstrate whether the player wascorrect or not in their assertion. Further details of a state basedgaming system, recovery from malfunctions and game history are describedin U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,763, titled “High Performance Battery Backed RAMInterface”, U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,608, titled “Frame Capture of ActualGame Play,” U.S. application Ser. No. 10/243,104, titled, “DynamicNV-RAM,” and U.S. application Ser. No. 10/758,828, titled, “FrameCapture of Actual Game Play,” each of which is incorporated by referenceand for all purposes.

In particular embodiments, a state of a gaming device may bereconstructed from game history information stored in multiplelocations. For instance, in one embodiment, a gaming device operable toprovide an ECI and a game interface simultaneously may not store stateinformation for the ECI but only for the game interface. Thus, toreconstruct the state of gaming device including the ECI in a dispute,after a malfunction or after a power-failure, game history informationmay have to be retrieved from a local memory source on the gaming deviceand a remote memory source located on a remote host that provides theECI. For example, the remote and gaming machine may store correlationinformation, such as timing information or referential information, thatallows events on the gaming machine to be correlated to events occurringon the remote host. The correlation information stored at the gamingmachine and/or remote host may be used to synchronize the reconstructionof a game state on the gaming machine. In a particular embodiment, aremote host that provides ECI services to a gaming device may provide anECI that allows archival information regarding ECIs displayed on agaming device to be retrieved.

Another feature of gaming machines, such as IGT gaming computers, isthat they often include unique interfaces, including serial interfaces,to connect to specific subsystems internal and external to the gamingmachine. The serial devices may have electrical interface requirementsthat differ from the “standard” EIA 232 serial interfaces provided bygeneral-purpose computers. These interfaces may include EIA 485, EIA422, Fiber Optic Serial, optically coupled serial interfaces, currentloop style serial interfaces, etc. In addition, to conserve serialinterfaces internally in the gaming machine, serial devices may beconnected in a shared, daisy-chain fashion where multiple peripheraldevices are connected to a single serial channel.

The serial interfaces may be used to transmit information usingcommunication protocols that are unique to the gaming industry. Forexample, IGT's Netplex is a proprietary communication protocol used forserial communication between gaming devices. As another example, SAS isa communication protocol used to transmit information, such as meteringinformation, from a gaming machine to a remote device. Often SAS is usedin conjunction with a player tracking system.

IGT gaming machines may alternatively be treated as peripheral devicesto a casino communication controller and connected in a shared daisychain fashion to a single serial interface. In both cases, theperipheral devices are preferably assigned device addresses. If so, theserial controller circuitry must implement a method to generate ordetect unique device addresses. General-purpose computer serial portsare not able to do this.

Security monitoring circuits detect intrusion into an IGT gaming machineby monitoring security switches attached to access doors in the gamingmachine cabinet. Preferably, access violations result in suspension ofgame play and can trigger additional security operations to preserve thecurrent state of game play. These circuits also function when power isoff by use of a battery backup. In power-off operation, these circuitscontinue to monitor the access doors of the gaming machine. When poweris restored, the gaming machine can determine whether any securityviolations occurred while power was off, e.g., via software for readingstatus registers. This can trigger event log entries and further dataauthentication operations by the gaming machine software.

Trusted memory devices and/or trusted memory sources are preferablyincluded in an IGT gaming machine computer to ensure the authenticity ofthe software that may be stored on less secure memory subsystems, suchas mass storage devices. Trusted memory devices and controllingcircuitry are typically designed to not enable modification of the codeand data stored in the memory device while the memory device isinstalled in the gaming machine. The code and data stored in thesedevices may include authentication algorithms, random number generators,authentication keys, operating system kernels, etc. The purpose of thesetrusted memory devices is to provide gaming regulatory authorities aroot trusted authority within the computing environment of the gamingmachine that can be tracked and verified as original. This may beaccomplished via removal of the trusted memory device from the gamingmachine computer and verification of the secure memory device contentsis a separate third party verification device. Once the trusted memorydevice is verified as authentic, and based on the approval of theverification algorithms included in the trusted device, the gamingmachine is enabled to verify the authenticity of additional code anddata that may be located in the gaming computer assembly, such as codeand data stored on hard disk drives. A few details related to trustedmemory devices that may be used in the present invention are describedin U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,567 from U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/925,098, filed Aug. 8, 2001 and titled “Process Verification,” whichis incorporated herein in its entirety and for all purposes.

In at least one embodiment, at least a portion of the trusted memorydevices/sources may correspond to memory which cannot easily be altered(e.g., “unalterable memory”) such as, for example, EPROMS, PROMS, Bios,Extended Bios, and/or other memory sources which are able to beconfigured, verified, and/or authenticated (e.g., for authenticity) in asecure and controlled manner.

According to a specific implementation, when a trusted informationsource is in communication with a remote device via a network, theremote device may employ a verification scheme to verify the identity ofthe trusted information source. For example, the trusted informationsource and the remote device may exchange information using public andprivate encryption keys to verify each other's identities. In anotherembodiment of the present invention, the remote device and the trustedinformation source may engage in methods using zero knowledge proofs toauthenticate each of their respective identities.

Gaming devices storing trusted information may utilize apparatus ormethods to detect and prevent tampering. For instance, trustedinformation stored in a trusted memory device may be encrypted toprevent its misuse. In addition, the trusted memory device may besecured behind a locked door. Further, one or more sensors may becoupled to the memory device to detect tampering with the memory deviceand provide some record of the tampering. In yet another example, thememory device storing trusted information might be designed to detecttampering attempts and clear or erase itself when an attempt attampering has been detected.

Additional details relating to trusted memory devices/sources aredescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/078,966, entitled“Secured Virtual Network in a Gaming Environment”, naming Nguyen et al.as inventors, filed on Mar. 10, 2005, herein incorporated in itsentirety and for all purposes.

Mass storage devices used in a general purpose computer typically enablecode and data to be read from and written to the mass storage device. Ina gaming machine environment, modification of the gaming code stored ona mass storage device is strictly controlled and would only be enabledunder specific maintenance type events with electronic and physicalenablers required. Though this level of security could be provided bysoftware, IGT gaming computers that include mass storage devicespreferably include hardware level mass storage data protection circuitrythat operates at the circuit level to monitor attempts to modify data onthe mass storage device and will generate both software and hardwareerror triggers should a data modification be attempted without theproper electronic and physical enablers being present. Details using amass storage device that may be used with the present invention aredescribed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,522, herein incorporatedby reference in its entirety for all purposes.

Game Play

Returning to the example of FIG. 6, when a user wishes to play thegaming machine 2, he or she inserts a ticket or cash through the paymentor coin acceptor 28 or bill validator 30. Additionally, the billvalidator may accept a printed ticket voucher, which may be accepted bythe bill validator 30 as an indicia of credit when a cashless ticketingsystem is used. At the start of the game, the player may enter playingtracking information using the card reader 24, the keypad 22, and theflorescent display 16. Further, other game preferences of the playerplaying the game may be read from a card inserted into the card reader.During the game, the player views game information using the videodisplay 34. Other game and prize information may also be displayed inthe video display screen 45 located in the top box.

During the course of a game, a player may be required to make a numberof decisions, which affect the outcome of the game. For example, aplayer may vary his or her wager on a particular game, select a prizefor a particular game selected from a prize server, or make gamedecisions which affect the outcome of a particular game. The player maymake these choices using the player-input switches 32, the video displayscreen 34 or using some other device which enables a player to inputinformation into the gaming machine. In some embodiments, the player maybe able to access various game services such as concierge services andentertainment content services using the video display screen 34 and onemore input devices.

During certain game events, the gaming machine 2 may display visual andauditory effects that can be perceived by the player. These effects addto the excitement of a game, which makes a player more likely tocontinue playing. Auditory effects include various sounds that areprojected by the speakers 10, 12, 14. Visual effects include flashinglights, strobing lights or other patterns displayed from lights on thegaming machine 2 or from lights behind the belly glass 40. After theplayer has completed a game, the player may receive game tokens from thecoin tray 38 or the ticket 20 from the printer 18, which may be used forfurther games or to redeem a prize. Further, the player may receive aticket 20 for food, merchandise, or games from the printer 18.

In one embodiment, as described above, the gaming machine canincorporate any suitable wagering primary or base game. The gamingmachine or device may include some or all of the features ofconventional gaming machines or devices. The primary or base game maycomprise any suitable reel-type game, card game, cascading or fallingsymbol game, number game or other game of chance susceptible torepresentation in an electronic or electromechanical form, which in oneembodiment produces a random outcome based on probability data at thetime of or after placement of a wager. That is, different primarywagering games, such as video poker games, video blackjack games, videokeno, video bingo or any other suitable primary or base game may beimplemented.

In one embodiment, a base or primary game may be a slot game with one ormore paylines. The paylines may be horizontal, vertical, circular,diagonal, angled or any combination thereof. In this embodiment, thegaming machine includes at least one and preferably a plurality ofreels, such as three to five reels, in either electromechanical formwith mechanical rotating reels or video form with simulated reels andmovement thereof. In one embodiment, an electromechanical slot machineincludes a plurality of adjacent, rotatable reels, which may be combinedand operably coupled with an electronic display of any suitable type. Inanother embodiment, if the reels are in video form, one or more of thedisplay devices, as described above, display the plurality of simulatedvideo reels. Each reel displays a plurality of indicia or symbols, suchas bells, hearts, fruits, numbers, letters, bars or other images, whichpreferably correspond to a theme associated with the gaming machine. Inanother embodiment, one or more of the reels are independent reels orunisymbol reels. In this embodiment, each independent or unisymbol reelgenerates and displays one symbol to the player. In one embodiment, thegaming machine awards prizes after the reels of the primary game stopspinning if specified types and/or configurations of indicia or symbolsoccur on an active payline or otherwise occur in a winning pattern,occur on the requisite number of adjacent reels and/or occur in ascatter pay arrangement.

In an alternative embodiment, rather than determining any outcome toprovide to the player by analyzing the symbols generated on any wageredupon paylines as described above, the gaming machine determines anyoutcome to provide to the player based on the number of associatedsymbols which are generated in active symbol positions on the requisitenumber of adjacent reels (i.e., not on paylines passing through anydisplayed winning symbol combinations). In this embodiment, if a winningsymbol combination is generated on the reels, the gaming machineprovides the player one award for that occurrence of the generatedwinning symbol combination. For example, if one winning symbolcombination is generated on the reels, the gaming machine will provide asingle award to the player for that winning symbol combination (i.e.,not based on paylines that would have passed through that winning symbolcombination). It should be appreciated that because a gaming machinewith wagering on ways to win provides the player one award for a singleoccurrence of a winning symbol combination and a gaming machine withpaylines may provide the player more than one award for the sameoccurrence of a single winning symbol combination (i.e., if a pluralityof paylines each pass through the same winning symbol combination), itis possible to provide a player at a ways to win gaming machine moreways to win for an equivalent bet or wager on a traditional slot gamingmachine with paylines.

In one embodiment, the total number of ways to win is determined bymultiplying the number of symbols generated in active symbol positionson a first reel by the number of symbols generated in active symbolpositions on a second reel by the number of symbols generated in activesymbol positions on a third reel and so on for each reel of the gamingmachine with at least one symbol generated in an active symbol position.For example, a three reel gaming machine with three symbols generated inactive symbol positions on each reel includes 27 ways to win (i.e., 3symbols on the first reel×3 symbols on the second reel×3 symbols on thethird reel). A four reel gaming machine with three symbols generated inactive symbol positions on each reel includes 81 ways to win (i.e., 3symbols on the first reel×3 symbols on the second reel×3 symbols on thethird reel×3 symbols on the fourth reel). A five reel gaming machinewith three symbols generated in active symbol positions on each reelincludes 243 ways to win (i.e., 3 symbols on the first reel×3 symbols onthe second reel×3 symbols on the third reel×3 symbols on the fourthreel×3 symbols on the fifth reel). It should be appreciated thatmodifying the number of generated symbols by either modifying the numberof reels or modifying the number of symbols generated in active symbolpositions by one or more of the reels, modifies the number of ways towin.

In another embodiment, the gaming machine may enable a player to wageron and thus activate symbol positions. In one such embodiment, thesymbol positions are on the reels. In this embodiment, if based on theplayer's wager, a reel is activated, then each of the symbol positionsof that reel will be activated and each of the active symbol positionswill be part of one or more of the ways to win. In one embodiment, ifbased on the player's wager, a reel is not activated, then a designatednumber of default symbol positions, such as a single symbol position ofthe middle row of the reel, will be activated and the default symbolposition(s) will be part of one or more of the ways to win. This type ofgaming machine enables a player to wager on one, more or each of thereels and the processor of the gaming machine uses the number of wageredon reels to determine the active symbol positions and the number ofpossible ways to win. In alternative embodiments, (1) no symbols aredisplayed as generated at any of the inactive symbol positions, or (2)any symbols generated at any inactive symbol positions may be displayedto the player but suitably shaded or otherwise designated as inactive.

In one embodiment wherein a player wagers on one or more reels, aplayer's wager of one credit may activate each of the three symbolpositions on a first reel, wherein one default symbol position isactivated on each of the remaining four reels. In this example, asdescribed above, the gaming machine provides the player three ways towin (i.e., 3 symbols on the first reel×1 symbol on the second reel×1symbol on the third reel×1 symbol on the fourth reel×1 symbol on thefifth reel). In another example, a player's wager of nine credits mayactivate each of the three symbol positions on a first reel, each of thethree symbol positions on a second reel and each of the three symbolpositions on a third reel wherein one default symbol position isactivated on each of the remaining two reels. In this example, asdescribed above, the gaming machine provides the player twenty-sevenways to win (i.e., 3 symbols on the first reel×3 symbols on the secondreel×3 symbols on the third reel×1 symbol on the fourth reel×1 symbol onthe fifth reel).

In one embodiment, to determine any award(s) to provide to the playerbased on the generated symbols, the gaming machine individuallydetermines if a symbol generated in an active symbol position on a firstreel forms part of a winning symbol combination with or is otherwisesuitably related to a symbol generated in an active symbol position on asecond reel. In this embodiment, the gaming machine classifies each pairof symbols, which form part of a winning symbol combination (i.e., eachpair of related symbols) as a string of related symbols. For example, ifactive symbol positions include a first cherry symbol generated in thetop row of a first reel and a second cherry symbol generated in thebottom row of a second reel, the gaming machine classifies the twocherry symbols as a string of related symbols because the two cherrysymbols form part of a winning symbol combination.

After determining if any strings of related symbols are formed betweenthe symbols on the first reel and the symbols on the second reel, thegaming machine determines if any of the symbols from the next adjacentreel should be added to any of the formed strings of related symbols. Inthis embodiment, for a first of the classified strings of relatedsymbols, the gaming machine determines if any of the symbols generatedby the next adjacent reel form part of a winning symbol combination orare otherwise related to the symbols of the first string of relatedsymbols. If the gaming machine determines that a symbol generated on thenext adjacent reel is related to the symbols of the first string ofrelated symbols, that symbol is subsequently added to the first stringof related symbols. For example, if the first string of related symbolsis the string of related cherry symbols and a related cherry symbol isgenerated in the middle row of the third reel, the gaming machine addsthe related cherry symbol generated on the third reel to the previouslyclassified string of cherry symbols.

On the other hand, if the gaming machine determines that no symbolsgenerated on the next adjacent reel are related to the symbols of thefirst string of related symbols, the gaming machine marks or flags suchstring of related symbols as complete. For example, if the first stringof related symbols is the string of related cherry symbols and none ofthe symbols of the third reel are related to the cherry symbols of thepreviously classified string of cherry symbols, the gaming machine marksor flags the string of cherry symbols as complete.

After either adding a related symbol to the first string of relatedsymbols or marking the first string of related symbols as complete, thegaming machine proceeds as described above for each of the remainingclassified strings of related symbols which were previously classifiedor formed from related symbols on the first and second reels.

After analyzing each of the remaining strings of related symbols, thegaming machine determines, for each remaining pending or incompletestring of related symbols, if any of the symbols from the next adjacentreel, if any, should be added to any of the previously classifiedstrings of related symbols. This process continues until either eachstring of related symbols is complete or there are no more adjacentreels of symbols to analyze. In this embodiment, where there are no moreadjacent reels of symbols to analyze, the gaming machine marks each ofthe remaining pending strings of related symbols as complete.

When each of the strings of related symbols is marked complete, thegaming machine compares each of the strings of related symbols to anappropriate paytable and provides the player any award associated witheach of the completed strings of symbols. It should be appreciated thatthe player is provided one award, if any, for each string of relatedsymbols generated in active symbol positions (i.e., as opposed to beingbased on how many paylines that would have passed through each of thestrings of related symbols in active symbol positions).

In one embodiment, a base or primary game may be a poker game whereinthe gaming machine enables the player to play a conventional game ofvideo draw poker and initially deals five cards all face up from avirtual deck of fifty-two card deck. Cards may be dealt as in atraditional game of cards or in the case of the gaming machine, may alsoinclude that the cards are randomly selected from a predetermined numberof cards. If the player wishes to draw, the player selects the cards tohold via one or more input device, such as pressing related hold buttonsor via the touch screen. The player then presses the deal button and theunwanted or discarded cards are removed from the display and the gamingmachine deals the replacement cards from the remaining cards in thedeck. This results in a final five-card hand. The gaming machinecompares the final five-card hand to a payout table which utilizesconventional poker hand rankings to determine the winning hands. Thegaming machine provides the player with an award based on a winning handand the credits the player wagered.

In another embodiment, the base or primary game may be a multi-handversion of video poker. In this embodiment, the gaming machine deals theplayer at least two hands of cards. In one such embodiment, the cardsare the same cards. In one embodiment each hand of cards is associatedwith its own deck of cards. The player chooses the cards to hold in aprimary hand. The held cards in the primary hand are also held in theother hands of cards. The remaining non-held cards are removed from eachhand displayed and for each hand replacement cards are randomly dealtinto that hand. Since the replacement cards are randomly dealtindependently for each hand, the replacement cards for each hand willusually be different. The poker hand rankings are then determined handby hand and awards are provided to the player.

In one embodiment, a base or primary game may be a keno game wherein thegaming machine displays a plurality of selectable indicia or numbers onat least one of the display devices. In this embodiment, the playerselects at least one or a plurality of the selectable indicia or numbersvia an input device such as the touch screen. The gaming machine thendisplays a series of drawn numbers to determine an amount of matches, ifany, between the player's selected numbers and the gaming machine'sdrawn numbers. The player is provided an award based on the amount ofmatches, if any, based on the amount of determined matches.

In one embodiment, in addition to winning credits or other awards in abase or primary game, as described above, the gaming machine may alsogive players the opportunity to win credits in a bonus or secondary gameor bonus or secondary round. The bonus or secondary game enables theplayer to obtain a prize or payout in addition to the prize or payout,if any, obtained from the base or primary game. In general, a bonus orsecondary game produces a significantly higher level of playerexcitement than the base or primary game because it provides a greaterexpectation of winning than the base or primary game and is accompaniedwith more attractive or unusual features than the base or primary game.In one embodiment, the bonus or secondary game may be any type ofsuitable game, either similar to or completely different from the baseor primary game.

In one embodiment, the triggering event or qualifying condition may be aselected outcome in the primary game or a particular arrangement of oneor more indicia on a display device in the primary game, such as thenumber seven appearing on three adjacent reels along a payline in theprimary slot game. In other embodiments, the triggering event orqualifying condition may be by exceeding a certain amount of game play(such as number of games, number of credits, amount of time), orreaching a specified number of points earned during game play.

In another embodiment, the gaming machine processor or remote hostrandomly provides the player one or more plays of one or more secondarygames. In one such embodiment, the gaming machine does not provide anyapparent reasons to the player for qualifying to play a secondary orbonus game. In this embodiment, qualifying for a bonus game is nottriggered by an event in or based specifically on any of the plays ofany primary game. That is, the gaming machine may simply qualify aplayer to play a secondary game without any explanation or alternativelywith simple explanations. In another embodiment, the gaming machine (orremote host) qualifies a player for a secondary game at least partiallybased on a game triggered or symbol triggered event, such as at leastpartially based on the play of a primary game.

In one embodiment, the gaming machine includes a program which willautomatically begin a bonus round after the player has achieved atriggering event or qualifying condition in the base or primary game. Inanother embodiment, after a player has qualified for a bonus game, theplayer may subsequently enhance his/her bonus game participation throughcontinued play on the base or primary game. Thus, for each bonusqualifying event, such as a bonus symbol, that the player obtains, agiven number of bonus game wagering points or credits may be accumulatedin a “bonus meter” programmed to accrue the bonus wagering credits orentries toward eventual participation in a bonus game. The occurrence ofmultiple such bonus qualifying events in the primary game may result inan arithmetic or exponential increase in the number of bonus wageringcredits awarded. In one embodiment, the player may redeem extra bonuswagering credits during the bonus game to extend play of the bonus game.

In one embodiment, no separate entry fee or buy in for a bonus game needbe employed. That is, a player may not purchase an entry into a bonusgame, rather they must win or earn entry through play of the primarygame thus, encouraging play of the primary game. In another embodiment,qualification of the bonus or secondary game is accomplished through asimple “buy in” by the player, for example, if the player has beenunsuccessful at qualifying through other specified activities. Inanother embodiment, the player must make a separate side-wager on thebonus game or wager a designated amount in the primary game to qualifyfor the secondary game. In this embodiment, the secondary gametriggering event must occur and the side-wager (or designated primarygame wager amount) must have been placed to trigger the secondary game.

Gaming System Components

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram illustrating components of a gaming system900 which may be used for implementing various aspects of the presentinvention. In FIG. 7, the components of a gaming system 900 forproviding game software licensing and downloads are describedfunctionally. The described functions may be instantiated in hardware,firmware and/or software and executed on a suitable device. In thesystem 900, there may be many instances of the same function, such asmultiple game play interfaces 911. Nevertheless, in FIG. 7, only oneinstance of each function is shown. The functions of the components maybe combined. For example, a single device may comprise the game playinterface 911 and include trusted memory devices or sources 909. Thedescribed components and their functions may be incorporated variousembodiments of the servers and clients described with respect to atleast FIGS. 1A and 6.

The gaming system 900 may receive inputs from different groups/entitiesand output various services and or information to these groups/entities.For example, game players 925 primarily input cash or indicia of creditinto the system, make game selections that trigger software downloads,and receive entertainment in exchange for their inputs. Game softwarecontent providers provide game software for the system and may receivecompensation for the content they provide based on licensing agreementswith the gaming machine operators. Gaming machine operators select gamesoftware for distribution, distribute the game software on the gamingdevices in the system 900, receive revenue for the use of their softwareand compensate the gaming machine operators. The gaming regulators 930may provide rules and regulations that must be applied to the gamingsystem and may receive reports and other information confirming thatrules are being obeyed.

In the following paragraphs, details of each component and some of theinteractions between the components are described with respect to FIG.7. The game software license host 901 may be a server connected to anumber of remote gaming devices that provides licensing services to theremote gaming devices. For example, in other embodiments, the licensehost 901 may 1) receive token requests for tokens used to activatesoftware executed on the remote gaming devices, 2) send tokens to theremote gaming devices, 3) track token usage and 4) grant and/or renewsoftware licenses for software executed on the remote gaming devices.The token usage may be used in utility based licensing schemes, such asa pay-per-use scheme.

In another embodiment, a game usage-tracking host 915 may track theusage of game software on a plurality of devices in communication withthe host. The game usage-tracking host 915 may be in communication witha plurality of game play hosts and gaming machines. From the game playhosts and gaming machines, the game usage tracking host 915 may receiveupdates of an amount that each game available for play on the deviceshas been played and on amount that has been wagered per game. Thisinformation may be stored in a database and used for billing accordingto methods described in a utility based licensing agreement.

The game software host 902 may provide game software downloads, such asdownloads of game software or game firmware, to various devious in thegame system 900. For example, when the software to generate the game isnot available on the game play interface 911, the game software host 902may download software to generate a selected game of chance played onthe game play interface. Further, the game software host 902 maydownload new game content to a plurality of gaming machines via arequest from a gaming machine operator.

In one embodiment, the game software host 902 may also be a gamesoftware configuration-tracking host 913. The function of the gamesoftware configuration-tracking host is to keep records of softwareconfigurations and/or hardware configurations for a plurality of devicesin communication with the host (e.g., denominations, number of paylines,paytables, max/min bets). Details of a game software host and a gamesoftware configuration host that may be used with the present inventionare described in co-pending U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,077, by Rowe, entitled,“Gaming Terminal Data Repository and Information System,” filed Dec. 21,2000, which is incorporated herein in its entirety and for all purposes.

A game play host device 903 may be a host server connected to aplurality of remote clients that generates games of chance that aredisplayed on a plurality of remote game play interfaces 911. Forexample, the game play host device 903 may be a server that providescentral determination for a bingo game play played on a plurality ofconnected game play interfaces 911. As another example, the game playhost device 903 may generate games of chance, such as slot games orvideo card games, for display on a remote client. A game player usingthe remote client may be able to select from a number of games that areprovided on the client by the host device 903. The game play host device903 may receive game software management services, such as receivingdownloads of new game software, from the game software host 902 and mayreceive game software licensing services, such as the granting orrenewing of software licenses for software executed on the device 903,from the game license host 901.

In particular embodiments, the game play interfaces or other gamingdevices in the gaming system 900 may be portable devices, such aselectronic tokens, cell phones, smart cards, tablet PC's and PDA's. Theportable devices may support wireless communications and thus, may bereferred to as wireless mobile devices. The network hardwarearchitecture 916 may be enabled to support communications betweenwireless mobile devices and other gaming devices in gaming system. Inone embodiment, the wireless mobile devices may be used to play games ofchance.

The gaming system 900 may use a number of trusted information sources.Trusted information sources 904 may be devices, such as servers, thatprovide information used to authenticate/activate other pieces ofinformation. CRC values used to authenticate software, license tokensused to enable the use of software or product activation codes used toactivate to software are examples of trusted information that might beprovided from a trusted information source 904. Trusted informationsources may be a memory device, such as an EPROM, that includes trustedinformation used to authenticate other information. For example, a gameplay interface 911 may store a private encryption key in a trustedmemory device that is used in a private key-public key encryption schemeto authenticate information from another gaming device.

When a trusted information source 904 is in communication with a remotedevice via a network, the remote device will employ a verificationscheme to verify the identity of the trusted information source. Forexample, the trusted information source and the remote device mayexchange information using public and private encryption keys to verifyeach other's identities.

Gaming devices storing trusted information might utilize apparatus ormethods to detect and prevent tampering. For instance, trustedinformation stored in a trusted memory device may be encrypted toprevent its misuse. In addition, the trusted memory device may besecured behind a locked door. Further, one or more sensors may becoupled to the memory device to detect tampering with the memory deviceand provide some record of the tampering. In yet another example, thememory device storing trusted information might be designed to detecttampering attempts and clear or erase itself when an attempt attampering has been detected.

The gaming system 900 of the present invention may include devices 906that provide authorization to download software from a first device to asecond device and devices 907 that provide activation codes orinformation that enable downloaded software to be activated. Thedevices, 906 and 907, may be remote servers and may also be trustedinformation sources. One example of a method of providing productactivation codes that may be used with the present invention isdescribes in previously incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,561.

A device 906 that monitors a plurality of gaming devices to determineadherence of the devices to gaming jurisdictional rules 908 may beincluded in the system 900. In one embodiment, a gaming jurisdictionalrule server may scan software and the configurations of the software ona number of gaming devices in communication with the gaming rule serverto determine whether the software on the gaming devices is valid for usein the gaming jurisdiction where the gaming device is located. Forexample, the gaming rule server may request a digital signature, such asCRC's, of particular software components and compare them with anapproved digital signature value stored on the gaming jurisdictionalrule server.

Further, the gaming jurisdictional rule server may scan the remotegaming device to determine whether the software is configured in amanner that is acceptable to the gaming jurisdiction where the gamingdevice is located. For example, a maximum bet limit may vary fromjurisdiction to jurisdiction and the rule enforcement server may scan agaming device to determine its current software configuration and itslocation and then compare the configuration on the gaming device withapproved parameters for its location.

A gaming jurisdiction may include rules that describe how game softwaremay be downloaded and licensed. The gaming jurisdictional rule servermay scan download transaction records and licensing records on a gamingdevice to determine whether the download and licensing was carried outin a manner that is acceptable to the gaming jurisdiction in which thegaming device is located. In general, the game jurisdictional ruleserver may be utilized to confirm compliance to any gaming rules passedby a gaming jurisdiction when the information needed to determine rulecompliance is remotely accessible to the server.

Game software, firmware or hardware residing a particular gaming devicemay also be used to check for compliance with local gamingjurisdictional rules. In one embodiment, when a gaming device isinstalled in a particular gaming jurisdiction, a software programincluding jurisdiction rule information may be downloaded to a securememory location on a gaming machine or the jurisdiction rule informationmay be downloaded as data and utilized by a program on the gamingmachine. The software program and/or jurisdiction rule information mayused to check the gaming device software and software configurations forcompliance with local gaming jurisdictional rules. In anotherembodiment, the software program for ensuring compliance andjurisdictional information may be installed in the gaming machine priorto its shipping, such as at the factory where the gaming machine ismanufactured.

The gaming devices in game system 900 may utilize trusted softwareand/or trusted firmware. Trusted firmware/software is trusted in thesense that is used with the assumption that it has not been tamperedwith. For instance, trusted software/firmware may be used toauthenticate other game software or processes executing on a gamingdevice. As an example, trusted encryption programs and authenticationprograms may be stored on an EPROM on the gaming machine or encoded intoa specialized encryption chip. As another example, trusted gamesoftware, i.e., game software approved for use on gaming devices by alocal gaming jurisdiction may be required on gaming devices on thegaming machine.

In the present invention, the devices may be connected by a network 916with different types of hardware using different hardware architectures.Game software can be quite large and frequent downloads can place asignificant burden on a network, which may slow information transferspeeds on the network. For game-on-demand services that require frequentdownloads of game software in a network, efficient downloading isessential for the service to remain viable. Thus, in the presentinventions, network efficient devices 910 may be used to activelymonitor and maintain network efficiency. For instance, software locatorsmay be used to locate nearby locations of game software for peer-to-peertransfers of game software. In another example, network traffic may bemonitored and downloads may be actively rerouted to maintain networkefficiency.

One or more devices in the present invention may provide game softwareand game licensing related auditing, billing and reconciliation reportsto server 912. For example, a software licensing billing server maygenerate a bill for a gaming device operator based upon a usage of gamesover a time period on the gaming devices owned by the operator. Inanother example, a software auditing server may provide reports on gamesoftware downloads to various gaming devices in the gaming system 900and current configurations of the game software on these gaming devices.

At particular time intervals, the software auditing server 912 may alsorequest software configurations from a number of gaming devices in thegaming system. The server may then reconcile the software configurationon each gaming device. In one embodiment, the software auditing server912 may store a record of software configurations on each gaming deviceat particular times and a record of software download transactions thathave occurred on the device. By applying each of the recorded gamesoftware download transactions since a selected time to the softwareconfiguration recorded at the selected time, a software configuration isobtained. The software auditing server may compare the softwareconfiguration derived from applying these transactions on a gamingdevice with a current software configuration obtained from the gamingdevice. After the comparison, the software-auditing server may generatea reconciliation report that confirms that the download transactionrecords are consistent with the current software configuration on thedevice. The report may also identify any inconsistencies. In anotherembodiment, both the gaming device and the software auditing server maystore a record of the download transactions that have occurred on thegaming device and the software auditing server may reconcile theserecords.

There are many possible interactions between the components describedwith respect to FIG. 7. Many of the interactions are coupled. Forexample, methods used for game licensing may affect methods used forgame downloading and vice versa. For the purposes of explanation,details of a few possible interactions between the components of thesystem 900 relating to software licensing and software downloads havebeen described. The descriptions are selected to illustrate particularinteractions in the game system 900. These descriptions are provided forthe purposes of explanation only and are not intended to limit the scopeof the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a high level flow chart of award flow according to anembodiment of the present invention.

In step 1002, a patron of the casino gaming environment is provided anaward. The award may be any type of award, for example: “comp dollars”or just “comp” which may be spent towards goods and services within acasino, such as to eat in a restaurant, or purchase goods or services onoffer within the environment; extra credit towards game play; andtangible items, such as sporting equipment, clothing, electronic items,or other merchandise. In step 1006, the operator of the casino gamingenvironment, or an agent thereof, facilitates the exchange of awardsbetween patrons (and merchants and other sources) to increase patronsatisfaction and loyalty. If a person having an award finds another typeof award more to his or her liking, allowing the person to exchange theaward will increase his or her satisfaction with the environment. This,in turn, will encourage attendance and repeat patronage. It will alsofoster increased commerce for all entities in the casino gamingenvironment. Finally, in step 1010, a patron may then redeem the awards,including those that may have been received as part of an exchange.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of award flow according to another embodiment ofthe present invention. In step 1020 patrons are awarded comp dollars. Instep 1022, patrons are awarded game play credits, and in step 1024,patrons are awarded tangible objects. Credit for all of these will bemaintained electronically in a cashless gaming environment, and may betied to a player via a player tracking card and/or unit, as describedearlier. Tangible items, of course, must be picked up or delivered tothe patron at some point. In step 1026 an indication is received, at agame machine, or other terminal, that a patron wishes to make anexchange. The type and amount of the award offered and desired, may alsobe specified. In step 1028 the system updates a database of desiredexchanges to reflect the desired exchange. Then in step 1030 the systemreferences the database and determines the aggregate supply of comp anddemand for comp, while in step 1032 it likewise determines the aggregatesupply and demand for extra credits, and in step 1034 it determines thesupply and demand for each different tangible object in the database.Then in step 1036, the system compares the supply and demand for theparticular desired and offered goods of the transaction at hand, oralternatively for each of the categories. In step 1038, based on thecomparison of the supply and demand of the transaction, the systemdetermines an adjusted transaction value. The value may, for example, bebased upon a ratio of the supply/demand of the offered good alone, ortogether with a ratio of the supply/demand of the desired good. Anycalculation utilizing the various ratios may also be employed, or othereconomic analysis used by economists versed in supply and demandanalysis. Then in step 1040, the system may optionally provide asuggested transaction amount to at least one participant of a potentialtransaction, which may be based on the adjusted transaction value orother criteria.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of award flow according to another embodiment ofthe present invention. In step 1050, various patrons are provideddifferent types of awards. In step 1052, an award exchange interface isprovided to patrons. This may be as part of a gaming machine, at akiosk, or in a hotel room TV or computer. This is true for allembodiments and exchanges, not just the process shown in FIG. 10. Instep 1054, the seller enters in the award he wishes to exchange, alongwith his identifying information. The user may create a username andpassword for the exchange interface, or may be identified by a playertracking card. The user also enters in a minimum price he is willing toaccept for the item, and the duration of the sale/auction. Then in step1056 the system publishes an advertisement for the user's item. This canbe published electronically and be displayed in a electronic servicewindow of a gaming machine, on any machine attached to the network, akiosk, or an in room TV or computer. It may also be displayed as a paperadvertisement in some environments. In step 1058, the system/userreceives and assesses bids. Typically, the highest bidder will be thewinner, although other criteria may be utilized. In step 1060, thetransaction is executed. This comprises providing the auctioned good tothe highest or otherwise best bidder. Since both the seller and bidderaccounts are maintained by the casino or venue, the appropriate accountswill be credited and debited.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of award flow according to another embodiment ofthe present invention. The patrons are initially provided with a firsttype of award, in step 1104. In step 1108, the exchange system receivesinput from a patron with the first type of award that he desires asecond type of award. Then in step 1112, the system receives input fromthe patron specifying a number of units of the first type of award thepatron wishes to exchange for a number of units of the second type ofaward. The number of first units may be specified as an exact amount ora maximum amount. In step 1116, the specified number of units of thefirst type of award are locked in the patron's account. This preventsthe patrons from being unable to spend or otherwise dispose of the unitsand ensures that the patron will be able to complete the transaction. Asan alternative to locking the specified amount, the system can monitorif the account falls below the specified amount and withdraw the offeror cancel the transaction. In step 1118 the system finds a source forthe second type of award. In one embodiment this involves creating andpublishing an advertisement or placing the details on an accessible listof offers. In another embodiment the system can automatically referencea database of those with the second type of award, and notify them of aninterest in their award, or if they have previous specified an interestin such a trade, it can automatically execute the trade. Then the systemwill check to see in step 1122 if the user has canceled the transactionorder, and if not it will proceed to step 1126 where it determines ifthe source of the second type of award is willing to trade the specifiednumber of units of the second type of award for less than or equal tothe specified number of units of the first type of award. Again, thecancellation in step 1122 can be undertaken if the user account fallsbelow the level needed to execute the transaction, or if the userotherwise indicates (prior to execution or some amount of time) that heno longer wishes to proceed.

In the event that there is a difference between what the buyer will payand what he seller will accept, for example, if there are buyers willingto pay more than the seller will accept, some portion of the spread maybe kept by the house, as part of or in addition to a transaction fee. Instep 1130, the transaction is executed, which as above, entailscrediting and debiting the appropriate accounts.

1. In a casino gaming environment, a method comprising: awarding aplurality of players at least one award of each type from a group ofawards comprising the following types: an amount of comp; extra gameplay credit; or a tangible object; receiving an indication from at leastone of the plurality of players that the player desires to exchange anamount of comp for a different type of award; receiving an indicationfrom at least one of the plurality of players that the player desires toexchange an amount of extra game play credit for a different type ofaward; receiving an indication from at least one of the plurality ofplayers that the player desires to exchange an awarded tangible objectfor a different type of award; maintaining a database of the indicationsfor exchanges; referencing the database and determining the aggregatesupply of comp; referencing the database and determining the aggregatedemand for comp; referencing the database and determining the aggregatedemand for game play credit; referencing the database and determiningthe aggregate supply of game play credit; and referencing the databaseand determining the supply of tangible items desired to be exchanged. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising facilitating a transactionbetween at least two of the plurality of players through a processcomprising: pairing at least one player desiring to exchange an awardfor comp with at least one player desiring to exchange comp for someother award; comparing the aggregate demand for comp with the aggregatesupply of comp; comparing the aggregate demand for the other award withthe aggregate supply of the other award; determining a transaction valueof the comp; and determining a transaction value of the other award. 3.The method of claim 2, further comprising providing a suggestedtransaction amount to at least one of the players.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the transaction amount comprises the transaction valueof the comp.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the transaction amountcomprises the transaction value of the other award.
 6. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the transaction amount comprises an amount between thetransaction value of the comp and the transaction value of the otheraward.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the transactionvalue of the comp comprises applying a ratio of the demand to supply tothe amount of the comp.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein determiningthe transaction value of the other award comprises applying a ratio ofthe demand to supply to the amount of the other award.
 9. A method offacilitating an award exchange transaction within a casino gamingenvironment, comprising: providing a plurality of types of awards topatrons; providing an award exchange user interface for the patrons;collecting seller award exchange information from the patron via theuser interface, said seller award exchange information comprising: atype of item the patron wishes to place on auction to other patrons; anda minimum price participants in the auction must bid in order for thetransactions to be completed; and a period of time publishing anadvertisement comprising the seller information on a network availableto patrons; receiving responses comprising a bid from interestedpurchasers and determining which of the interested purchasers has bidthe highest amount within the period of time; and executing the awardexchange transaction between the selling patron and the interestedpurchaser that has bid the highest amount within the period of time. 10.The method of claim 9, wherein executing the transaction furthercomprises debiting an account the selling patron has with the casino forthe sold award and crediting an account of the selling patron for all orpart of the highest bid.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein executingthe transaction further comprises debiting an account the interestedpurchaser that has bid the highest amount has with the casino for all orpart of the highest bid and crediting an account of the interestedpurchaser that has bid the highest amount with all or part of theexchanged award.
 12. The method of claim 9, further comprising locking aquantity of the type of item within a patron account where the item isheld.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the locking is performed untilthe end of the period of time.
 14. A method for servicing a casinogaming customer, comprising: providing the customer a first type ofaward; receiving input from the customer of a desired second type ofaward; receiving input from the customer specifying a number of units ofthe first type of award the customer wishes to exchange for a number ofunits of the second type of award; finding a source for the second typeof award; determining if the source of the second type of award iswilling to trade the specified number of units of the second type ofaward for less than or equal to the specified number of units of thefirst type of award; and if so determined, executing the transactionbetween the customer and the source.
 15. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising preventing the customer from redeeming the first type ofaward after receiving input from the customer that he wishes to exchangethe award.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein the customer is preventedfrom redeeming the number of units of the first type of award receivedfrom the customer, but may otherwise redeem units of the first type ofaward in excess of the specified number of units.
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the input on the desired second type of award and theinput on the number of units of the first and second type of award isreceived as part of a trade order.
 18. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising receiving a cancellation notice from either the customer orsource, and if the notice is received prior to a positive determinationthat the source is willing to exchange, cancelling the trade order. 19.The method of claim 14, wherein executing the transaction comprisesdebiting an account of the customer for the first award type andcrediting an account of the customer for the second award type.
 20. Themethod of claim 19, wherein executing the transaction comprises debitingan account of the source for the second award type and crediting anaccount of the source for the first award type.
 21. The method of claim14, further comprising charging the customer a transaction fee.
 22. Themethod of claim 14, further comprising charging the source a transactionfee.
 23. The method of claim 14, wherein executing the transactioncomprises exchanging the specified number of units of the second type ofaward for less than the specified number of units of the first type ofaward.
 24. The method of claim 19, further comprising keeping, as a feefor executing the transaction, the spread between the number of units ofthe first award specified by the customer and the number of units thesource will accept.
 25. The method of claim 17, further comprising:monitoring the number of available units of the first award in anaccount of the customer; after finding the source for the second type ofaward, comparing the number of available units to the number of unitsthe customer wishes to exchange or the number the source will accept,and; if the number of available units is insufficient, cancelling theorder prior to execution.
 26. The method of claim 14, wherein the sourceof the second type of award is a casino gaming customer.
 27. The methodof claim 14, wherein the source of the second type of award is thecasino.
 28. The method of claim 14, further comprising creating anadvertisement specifying that the customer has the first type of awardand wishes to make an exchange.
 29. The method of claim 28, furthercomprising specifying the number of units of the first type of award inthe advertisement.
 30. The method of claim 28, further comprisingverifying that the specified number of units are available in an accountof the customer as a condition to running the advertisement.
 31. Themethod of claim 29, further comprising locking the specified number ofunits within an account of the customer until a trade is executed orcancelled.